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I mean by that a model of computation in the TCS sense. (Some) molecules, be them DNA, RNA or other, are akin to lambda terms (or graphs), beta reduction (or ot
by isthatart 8y ago
I mean by that a model of computation in the TCS sense. (Some) molecules, be them DNA, RNA or other, are akin to lambda terms (or graphs), beta reduction (or other graph rewrites) are akin to chemical reactions. The algorithm of reduction has to be random, local (i.e. no higher point of view criteria for interaction are used), performed by Nature. All in all, to be able to prove that some part of the biochemistry can be seen, as a concrete asynchronous graph rewrite automaton (capable of universal computation) would be a great advance in biology.
- dekhn 8y agoI'm not sure why that would be the case. First, I think most smart people already recognize that sufficiently complex biochemical systems can in fact perform computation as well as other abstract operations. Second, there is already a ton of literature in this area, it's often very helpful to analyze biological data from the perspective of various graph and sequence rewrite automata, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the underlying biology is explicitly exploiting matter at that level. Third, I don't see why having any such "proof" (to the extent that you can prove anything about biological systems anyway) would be an advance. What new predictions would you be able make?
- isthatart 8y agoThis and the references https://figshare.com/articles/Chemlambda_strings/5751318 https://figshare.com/articles/Chemlambda_strings/5751318