Biology Will Be the Next Great Computing Platform

Post by ItsMe000001 » Fri, May 04, 2018, 8:40 AM UTC

SanityIsRare wrote: post #10

ItsMe000001 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is analog computers all over again. No it is not. Analog computers were used before good digital computers could be produced, for the same roles and straightforward problems. Life solves problem at scales that you cannot even touch with "precision" and in completely different ways. The problem is thinking that those systems are supposed to be used instead of computers. I reality, they are to tackle much differ…

Life doesn't solve "problems" though - it just creates random order from chaos. What kind of problems do you even have in mind? What would you even solve if we could somehow understand or control these bigger forces of organization? I agree with the OP, we are not replacing silicon with DNA or anything - this article is just another "tech" article that shouldn't exist.

Post by [deleted] » Fri, May 04, 2018, 8:48 AM UTC

ItsMe000001 wrote: post #11

SanityIsRare wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Life doesn't solve "problems" though - it just creates random order from chaos. What kind of problems do you even have in mind? What would you even solve if we could somehow understand or control these bigger forces of organization? I agree with the OP, we are not replacing silicon with DNA or anything - this article is just another "tech" article that shouldn't exist.

> Life doesn't solve "problems" though Wait, what? Biological systems are not solving problems? It does so all the time! Seriously? > it just creates random order from chaos. You get that with just physics, on a large scale for example the formation of galaxies and stars, or when things self-sort by weight in a gravity field (heavy stuff goes to bottom of a solution, lighter stuff goes to the top).

Post by SanityIsRare » Fri, May 04, 2018, 8:55 AM UTC

ItsMe000001 wrote: post #14

SanityIsRare wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they don't solve problems, it's just natural selection in an environment with lots of randomness. Life didn't even start out by solving problems, as I said: random order from chaos. Life doesn't care about solving problems, it's just collection of random matter. Given enough random matter, you are destined to get some with odd properties in right conditions that can also spiral out of control to create something…

> No, they don't solve problems, Of course they do. Being alive presents all kinds of problems. I mean, seriously man... I don't understand the things you write, really strange stuff, I'm at a loss.

Post by pjmlp » Fri, May 04, 2018, 9:03 AM UTC

dnautics wrote: post #9

As someone who has a PhD in biochemistry and has been coding since age 5, I find the headline rediculous. You won't be computing in biology. Consider, a transistor is about 50-100 atoms wide. A protein, which cannot itself even be a minimal unit of compute, (maybe a molecular transistor like NiFe hydrogenase has a shot) is already bigger than that. The things described in the article are not biology used for computat…

Post by tim333 » Fri, May 04, 2018, 9:26 AM UTC

goatlover wrote: post #8

agumonkey wrote: post #6

At that point I flee anything with computing. I feel it's a reflex fad that invades any field.

Surprised there isn't a major branch of philosophy called computational philosophy. Give how some computer scientists treat computation as central to existence.