8 ms·

It is "programmed" by the recursive feedback loop of evolution. If anything fails to work, the program terminates and something more reliable will take its pla

by p1mrx 6y ago

It is "programmed" by the recursive feedback loop of evolution. If anything fails to work, the program terminates and something more reliable will take its place.

umvi 6y ago
Still nothing short of incredible. "the recursive feedback loop of evolution" abstracts a mind boggling amount of complexity. How did such a complex system start? I suppose if we knew, abiogenesis would be a solved problem.
- lovecg 6y ago
  There are some plausible theories, like RNA randomly crystallizing on a suitable surface. Sooner or later a self-copying one just happened to crystallize by chance, and there was no going back. Fun lecture series: https://youtu.be/PqPGOhXoprU https://youtu.be/PqPGOhXoprU
- shellfishgene 6y ago
  You may like "The Vital Question" by Nick Lane, a book which presents one possible scenario in a quite readable way. Much of it is quite speculative of course, but you get a good idea what the basic principles are.
- KineticLensman 6y ago
  > "the recursive feedback loop of evolution" abstracts a mind boggling amount of complexity. How did such a complex system start? From something much simpler, and which has been iterating for approx 4 billion years.
brbrodude 6y ago
The trippy detail for me is that the runtime is time and space, thats what its frictioned against, even matter and its states are determined by it. Evolution sure is a word.. Not sure it captures it tho
WClayFerguson 6y ago
People also underestimate how easy it is for life to get started by accident. Let's say you need a short segment of DNA to randomly pop into existence, capable of nothing but self-replication. What are the odds? Here's my best analogy: If you take one mole of "random" Rubik's Cubes (the number of molecules in a glass of water), then search for 'Solved' ones you'll find 512 are magically solved, merely by the power of large numbers. The ways molecules can 'snap together' are similarly 'finite', just like a puzzle. Now think how many glasses of water are on earth. A replicating molecule would have existed probably on the FIRST DAY earth had cooled enough to form water. If we knew what the shortest sequence if DNA is that can replicate, we'd be able to mathematically state the probability of it existing in any 'random' length of DNA of that length as 1/(4^N) where N is DNA length (number of AT/GC pairs).
- w0de0 6y ago
  Wouldn’t that imply that we’d find independent genesis of replicating molecules frequently even now?
  - WClayFerguson 6y ago
    If we found a sequence of DNA on some sample, and another identical sequence in that same sample, we still wouldn't know replication is happening. However there may be slightly more requirements like the sequence has to be found in an oil film (bubble) up until it can form a skin/membrane, to protect itself, so even if it was happening on earth trillions of times every day no one would be there to discover it, and other life on the planet with a head start (bacteria, etc) would consume it before it made more 'progress' by evolution. In the early planet there was nothing to "eat up" life as it was starting. Everything was on an equal footing.
    - NickSharp 6y ago
      There's strong evidence that all life on this planet can trace back to a single strand of DNA, which evolved exactly once in our billions of years. For example, if I understand this correctly, a random jumble of DNA as you describe would have a 50/50 chance of twisting to the right or twisting to the left. And yet all life on earth uses DNA that is "right handed" twisting to the right.
abandonliberty 6y ago
Over 15% of medically confirmed pregnancies end in miscarriage. Typically in a response to a gross chromosomal abnormality. We are familiar with downs syndrome, 3 rather than the intended 2 copies of chromosome 21, only because it's comparatively viable.
- cmpb 6y ago
  Good point. That seems like a "soft-shutdown" compared to the "hard-shutdown" that I interpreted from the parent post: dying due to being unfit in the environment.

by p1mrx 6y ago

It is "programmed" by the recursive feedback loop of evolution. If anything fails to work, the program terminates and something more reliable will take its place.

umvi 6y ago

Still nothing short of incredible. "the recursive feedback loop of evolution" abstracts a mind boggling amount of complexity. How did such a complex system start? I suppose if we knew, abiogenesis would be a solved problem.

lovecg 6y ago
There are some plausible theories, like RNA randomly crystallizing on a suitable surface. Sooner or later a self-copying one just happened to crystallize by chance, and there was no going back. Fun lecture series: https://youtu.be/PqPGOhXoprU https://youtu.be/PqPGOhXoprU
shellfishgene 6y ago
You may like "The Vital Question" by Nick Lane, a book which presents one possible scenario in a quite readable way. Much of it is quite speculative of course, but you get a good idea what the basic principles are.
KineticLensman 6y ago
> "the recursive feedback loop of evolution" abstracts a mind boggling amount of complexity. How did such a complex system start? From something much simpler, and which has been iterating for approx 4 billion years.

brbrodude 6y ago

The trippy detail for me is that the runtime is time and space, thats what its frictioned against, even matter and its states are determined by it. Evolution sure is a word.. Not sure it captures it tho

WClayFerguson 6y ago

People also underestimate how easy it is for life to get started by accident. Let's say you need a short segment of DNA to randomly pop into existence, capable of nothing but self-replication. What are the odds? Here's my best analogy: If you take one mole of "random" Rubik's Cubes (the number of molecules in a glass of water), then search for 'Solved' ones you'll find 512 are magically solved, merely by the power of large numbers. The ways molecules can 'snap together' are similarly 'finite', just like a puzzle. Now think how many glasses of water are on earth. A replicating molecule would have existed probably on the FIRST DAY earth had cooled enough to form water. If we knew what the shortest sequence if DNA is that can replicate, we'd be able to mathematically state the probability of it existing in any 'random' length of DNA of that length as 1/(4^N) where N is DNA length (number of AT/GC pairs).

w0de0 6y ago
Wouldn’t that imply that we’d find independent genesis of replicating molecules frequently even now?
- WClayFerguson 6y ago
  If we found a sequence of DNA on some sample, and another identical sequence in that same sample, we still wouldn't know replication is happening. However there may be slightly more requirements like the sequence has to be found in an oil film (bubble) up until it can form a skin/membrane, to protect itself, so even if it was happening on earth trillions of times every day no one would be there to discover it, and other life on the planet with a head start (bacteria, etc) would consume it before it made more 'progress' by evolution. In the early planet there was nothing to "eat up" life as it was starting. Everything was on an equal footing.
  - NickSharp 6y ago
    There's strong evidence that all life on this planet can trace back to a single strand of DNA, which evolved exactly once in our billions of years. For example, if I understand this correctly, a random jumble of DNA as you describe would have a 50/50 chance of twisting to the right or twisting to the left. And yet all life on earth uses DNA that is "right handed" twisting to the right.

abandonliberty 6y ago

Over 15% of medically confirmed pregnancies end in miscarriage. Typically in a response to a gross chromosomal abnormality. We are familiar with downs syndrome, 3 rather than the intended 2 copies of chromosome 21, only because it's comparatively viable.

cmpb 6y ago
Good point. That seems like a "soft-shutdown" compared to the "hard-shutdown" that I interpreted from the parent post: dying due to being unfit in the environment.