Life! What a concept!

Old news. Only the chemo-heads should be surprised.”HM

You may be right. But can you identify anything in nature besides life that engages digital information, genetic otherwise, to communicate structural and functional analogs from one generation to the next?”HM

Yes, of course. But the key word in the latter is "is." As such, you may be working on an ontological landscape. That's like asking, What kind of "being" does life have? Certainly life exists. And certainly life requires gooey chemicals, just like music requires musical instruments. Who would disagree? But life goes beyond the gooey and the instrumental. Life fits through a very narrow aperture called fertilization. That's where the digital part becomes really interesting, because there isn't much of any analogs that get through that tiny hole.”HM

Well, excuse me, then. In the subject .pdf of your OP, Seth Lloyd says this:

quote:

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It's interesting because in fact the digital nature of genetic information, the fact that it's seven billion bits that can easily be written into a computer hard drive, makes genetic information much more like the information in computers and it can be manipulated in that way. Whereas strangely enough, our mental information, the information that's in our brains, is much less digital in a fashion, and much harder to get hold of.

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So do you want to discuss the digital claims made in the subject .pdf or not? Or do you just want to bitch at somebody?”HM

Molbio, go back and read your own OP. You opened up a discussion of EDGE's pub: "Life: What a Concept!" And when I began discussing it contents you bitched at me about going off topic. You seem like you'd rather bitch at people than discuss a topic that you yourself brought up. Besides, this the Coffee House thread. If I want to express my opinion that life is digital first and chemical second on this threat I should be allowed to without having to suffer your literary yeast infection.So get off your high horse.”HM

Hi teen4christ,Could you elaborate on how prions and elements inside stars would qualify as having or being digital information? This would be relevant to what Seth Lloyd said about digital information in the subject document.”HM Edited by AdminPD, : Warning

Well, OK then, let's discuss the book without touching on any of its ideas. For starters the book is not bound very well. But it's free. I think the font probably is Times New Roman. And it's double spaced, too, for easier reading. Yes, and the authors...oh, sorry, that's OT because it's not about the book. Hmm, not much else to say, except B&N doesn't carry it and you have to provide your own paper if you want a printed version. That's 'bout it, so far as the book is concerned.Gosh, am I a good poster! Stayed right on topic for the good of EvC and all mankind.”HM