Hi John, Hold it! Where is the information about the physical system required to run that 750 Meg of information contained? I think that it is a mistake to assume that Nature builds information sets that have nothing at all to do with the particulars of the hardware. My reasoning here is that it is the "hardware" that is acted upon to select the fittest genome - if we follow Dawkins' line - and the fact that most of the DNA code is made up of instructions to create this and that sequence of hydrocarbons - aka proteins, sugars and peptides.
We should *not* think of the computational aspect of living systems as blind to hardware, ala computational universality. On Mon, Sep 1, 2014 at 12:42 PM, John Clark <[email protected]> wrote: > On Sun, Aug 31, 2014 at 3:18 PM, 'Chris de Morsella' via Everything List < > [email protected]> wrote: > > > Just want to point out that the process of DNA expression is highly >> dynamic and is multi-factored >> > > Yes it certainly is, but however dynamic the DNA information is it's still > just 750 meg (actually it's much less than that considering the massive > amount of redundancy in our genome). And Telmo's 1000 lines of lisp would > also have to be highly dynamic. > > > The mammalian genomes undergo very extensive genomic reprogramming >> during embryogenesis. >> > > And where did the information about how to do that reprogramming come > from? From the original 750 meg. > > > >> > This is especially so during the process of embryogenesis, an >> unfolding developmental choreographed switching process that is controlled >> by epigenetic programming (methylation /demethylation and other mechanisms). >> > > Methylation means that occasionally a Methyl group might be added to one > of the DNA bases, a base would have a Methyl group or it would not so it's > still digital. There are 4 bases so AT MOST each of the 3 billion bases > would represent 3 bits instead of 2, so the information content would > increase from 750 Meg to 1.12 Gig and with a file compression program like > ZIP you could still fit all of it on a CD. > > But in reality Epigenetic information is pretty clearly of minor > importance compared with the DNA sequence information, so I doubt it would > even cause it to increase to 751 Meg. And the evidence that Epigenetic > heredity exists for more than one generation is very meager. > > >> > DNA is not a direct single layered – single meaning -- instruction set >> encoded and fixed. >> > > You can assign as many layers of meaning on it as you like but nothing can > change the fact that you could put all the information in the entire human > DNA genome on a old fashioned CD and still have enough room on it for a > Beatles album from 1965. > > >> > The same strand of DNA, depending on the dynamic action of the large >> number of transcription factors >> > > A transcription factors is just a protein that binds to specific DNA > sequences. And where did the information come from to know what sequence of > amino acids will build that very important protein? From the original 750 > Meg of course. > > > It is – IMO – necessary to understand DNA as [...] >> > > I'm not saying that understanding how 750 Meg of DNA information manages > to produce a human being will be easy, figuring out how Telmo's 1000 lines > of lisp works will not be easy either, but I am saying that's all the > information there is. > > John K Clark > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the > Google Groups "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this topic, visit > https://groups.google.com/d/topic/everything-list/YJeHJO5dNqQ/unsubscribe. > To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to > [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- Kindest Regards, Stephen Paul King Senior Researcher Mobile: (864) 567-3099 [email protected] http://www.provensecure.us/ “This message (including any attachments) is intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed, and may contain information that is non-public, proprietary, privileged, confidential and exempt from disclosure under applicable law or may be constituted as attorney work product. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any use, dissemination, distribution, or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, notify sender immediately and delete this message immediately.” -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
