This struck me:
When animals develop, they don't follow a script. Instead, responding to their environment, the cells negotiate and feel their way toward a final form. A fertilized egg divides, and divides again, creating a hollow ball of cells called a blastula; genes instruct these cells to release chemicals, and other cells, reacting to those chemical concentrations, decide to migrate elsewhere or to develop into specific types of tissue. Other influences-oxygen, nutrients, hormones, sometimes toxins-further shape gestation. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/05/10/persuading-the-body-to-regener ate-its-limbs?utm_source=nl <https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/05/10/persuading-the-body-to-regene rate-its-limbs?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Daily_050821&utm_ campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&bxid=5bd678d924c17c104801f684&cndid=408359 28&hasha=1dc6f15a30be2d4712fae5f0e5a9a679&hashb=5e4befc88214fadc869224d7cb34 d55f51451bc7&hashc=0c6ef6b7bc8221288e1f4a4ca0116d78a21ebdbe47949488640c7c54c 93120fb&esrc=AUTO_PRINT&utm_term=TNY_Daily> &utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Daily_050821&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium= email&bxid=5bd678d924c17c104801f684&cndid=40835928&hasha=1dc6f15a30be2d4712f ae5f0e5a9a679&hashb=5e4befc88214fadc869224d7cb34d55f51451bc7&hashc=0c6ef6b7b c8221288e1f4a4ca0116d78a21ebdbe47949488640c7c54c93120fb&esrc=AUTO_PRINT&utm_ term=TNY_Daily First, note the reliance on psychological terms. This is the sort of passage that would stimulate my teasing Hywel with, "So you see, Hywel, psychology really IS the mother of all sciences." And don't any of you DARE to come back at me with, "It's just a metaphor." Second, which of these two models encapsulates more closely what you wizards mean by computation. Is carrying out an algorithm more like "computation" or is "building a limb"? Is a salamander's limb "computed"? If so, who computes it, or is that a violation of the language of computation. I know. Fools rush in where wise men fear to tread. Your loyal fool, Nic Nick Thompson [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/
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