From: Mike Dougherty (msd001@gmail.com)
Date: Sun May 14 2006 - 21:09:27 MDT
Is the human genome a self-referential program code? Though I cannot seem
to find a good example URL, I recall reading about genomics researchers
identifying large sections of the the genome that do not appear to have any
particular function. It seems that the popular theory is that these
sequences once provided useful information and that they are now obsolete
yet have not been 'deleted.' It would seem wasteful to leave the
equivalence of developer's comments in the source code (unless we're
currently running as un-optimized beta code) It is generally observed that
Nature is highly efficient at managing energy/material resources. So what
is the purpose of these apparently inactive sequences?
As an analogy, consider the encoding of IP
datagrams<http://www.tcpipguide.com/free/t_IPDatagramGeneralFormat.htm>.
There is a very specific preamble "header" preceding the data "payload"
Typically the infrastructure equipment between two endpoints
(routers/switches) only considers the header portion of the datagram. That
is all that is required to process the packet at the network level. The
payload portion is of no concern to intermediate devices. The target
computer will pass the contents of this payload to the application that is
expected to correctly handle the data. If we were to discover this
encoding, rather than create it - what context would we use to understand
the syntax? That is, across the universe of IPv4 datagrams there is a
standard for the meaning of the data encoded in the header section. A
similar header encoding standard might exist in DNA. The IPv4 payload has
no standard, and is unique to the application to which the datagram is
intended. It is also possible that the application itself is using variable
data, so there would be no Rosetta Stone by which to decode that payload.
(Even assuming there is no SSL or other encryption in effect)
Is it plausible that these "unknown format" sequences could be instructions
that are parsed above the biomechanical level? Could there be a "rendering
agent" that is acting on the aggregate of these sequences? Are we looking
at the Bits of DNA looking for Bytes and missing the Words? Could these
sequences be Turing rules for how to rewrite the tape containing the rules?
If the currently understood mechanics of DNA are the rules for manipulating
the substrate (biological nano replication) - is it possible these unknown
sequences encode either the sourcecode of the software on the substrate or
the current working memory (RAM) of the running program itself?
BTW, if this line of thought is off-topic for the SL4 list, please respond
to me directly with any additional thoughts or feedback you might have.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Jul 17 2013 - 04:00:56 MDT