I don't know if retrodicting an exponential growth curve back to it's origin is technically an extrapolation, but aside from that quibble this is very cute.
Plot Moore's Law, it hits the origin in the 1960's when there were zero transistors on chips. "A similar process works with scientific publications. Between 1990 and 1960, they doubled in number every 15 years or so. Extrapolating this backwards gives the origin of scientific publication as 1710, about the time of Isaac Newton." Now make some assumptions about the time of origin of various genetic complexities evident in the history of life on earth, and plot the growth curve for that. When was its origin? http://www.technologyreview.com/view/513781/moores-law-and-the-origin-of-life/ http://arxiv.org/abs/1304.3381 -- rec --
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