3 ms·

The Information Theory of Life

62 points by retupmoc01 11y ago

eli_gottlieb 11y ago
Makes sense. Life is thermodynamics, and thermodynamics is statistical physics, and statistical physics is information theory.
- sdfghjkl34567 11y ago
  Hi, I wanted to respond to your comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9719648 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9719648 It's true that most of the left is sadly ignorant of such concepts, but the reason my own praxis has developed so far beyond the typical left is because I've been exposed to them. Leftists won't phrase things in terms of memetics either, but that's what they're actually optimizing for, and I thought HN would both understand the term and appreciate the specificity, so I used it.
wanderingstan 11y ago
This idea was first explored, I believe, by G.J. Chaitin in 1970 in his essay 'To a Mathematical Definition of "Life"' https://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~chaitin/sicact.pdf https://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~chaitin/sicact.pdf Cool to see further work done on this.
theophrastus 11y ago
This also recapitulates much of what is theorized in "The Selfish Gene" (Richard Dawkins, 1976). So much so it's a bit surprising that the article doesn't make a single reference to that work.
Artistry121 11y ago
I imagine the universe as a bunch of disparate pieces that can combine in myriad ways. Some of those ways create the conditions for other pieces to combine in a similar way. Once those pieces exist they actually change the world around them toward their own existence - sometimes in concert with other ways that promote mutual survival. Life is a very powerful version of this that actually converts other matter into itself. This happens at all levels of the universe - from quarks to humans to stars.
Isamu 11y ago
The most helpful paper seems to be this one: From Entropy to Information: Biased Typewriters and the Origin of Life, http://arxiv.org/abs/1506.06988 http://arxiv.org/abs/1506.06988 Refers to the Avida evolution simulator: https://github.com/devosoft/avida/wiki https://github.com/devosoft/avida/wiki

62 points by retupmoc01 11y ago

Makes sense. Life is thermodynamics, and thermodynamics is statistical physics, and statistical physics is information theory.

sdfghjkl34567 11y ago
Hi, I wanted to respond to your comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9719648 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9719648 It's true that most of the left is sadly ignorant of such concepts, but the reason my own praxis has developed so far beyond the typical left is because I've been exposed to them. Leftists won't phrase things in terms of memetics either, but that's what they're actually optimizing for, and I thought HN would both understand the term and appreciate the specificity, so I used it.

wanderingstan 11y ago

This idea was first explored, I believe, by G.J. Chaitin in 1970 in his essay 'To a Mathematical Definition of "Life"' https://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~chaitin/sicact.pdf https://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~chaitin/sicact.pdf Cool to see further work done on this.

theophrastus 11y ago

This also recapitulates much of what is theorized in "The Selfish Gene" (Richard Dawkins, 1976). So much so it's a bit surprising that the article doesn't make a single reference to that work.

Artistry121 11y ago

I imagine the universe as a bunch of disparate pieces that can combine in myriad ways. Some of those ways create the conditions for other pieces to combine in a similar way. Once those pieces exist they actually change the world around them toward their own existence - sometimes in concert with other ways that promote mutual survival. Life is a very powerful version of this that actually converts other matter into itself. This happens at all levels of the universe - from quarks to humans to stars.

Isamu 11y ago

The most helpful paper seems to be this one: From Entropy to Information: Biased Typewriters and the Origin of Life, http://arxiv.org/abs/1506.06988 http://arxiv.org/abs/1506.06988 Refers to the Avida evolution simulator: https://github.com/devosoft/avida/wiki https://github.com/devosoft/avida/wiki