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Proteins have emergent behaviors not entirely predictable from the behaviors of their constituent atoms. Define "emergent". I can believe that a protein's beha
by orangecat 16y ago
Proteins have emergent behaviors not entirely predictable from the behaviors of their constituent atoms.
Define "emergent". I can believe that a protein's behavior is extremely sensitive to the initial configuration of its atoms and that as a practical matter we can't (currently?) get detailed enough measurements to predict exactly what's going to happen. But without exceptionally compelling evidence I'm not going to believe that there are different physical laws for proteins than for their atoms.
- cageface 16y agoI suggest you read Prigogine's book if you're really interested but his work demonstrates that the problem isn't having detailed enough information about state, it's the irreversibility of time, which makes physics fundamentally non-deterministic.
- TheEzEzz 16y agoWhat has irreversibility got to do with it? There are cellular automata that are irreversible but obviously deterministic.
- cageface 16y agoIt has to do with entropy and thermodynamics and the fact that living systems are so far removed from thermodynamic equilibrium that they generate unpredictable, emergent behaviors. The math behind is pretty gnarly but if you want to understand it I recommend his book: http://www.amazon.com/End-Certainty-Ilya-Prigogine/dp/0684837056 http://www.amazon.com/End-Certainty-Ilya-Prigogine/dp/068483... . A CA is not a good model for this.