4 ms·
To Find Life in the Universe, Find the Computation
- anonymouskimmer 3y ago> In 2017 the biologist and complexity scientist Chris Kempes and his colleagues pointed out that when the process of RNA translation takes an amino acid and attaches it to a chain of other amino acids (making or “computing” a protein inside cells) the energy involved is within a factor of 10 of the Landauer limit—which is an absolutely tiny 10-20 joules at room temperature. Neat. It's nice to know that mathematicians and physicists have biology envy. > Humans are an example of a biology whose external machine structures now take on, and create, much of its computational needs. We’re already a blended system, and that could be the most common type of life across the cosmos, and the type of life we’re most likely to eventually detect. This analogy I do not buy. Even mathematicians with biology envy focus less on biology and more on math. We are not "blended", we are creatures that use inorganic tools, like any other form of life.