isn't mRNA, crisper, prime-editing doing exactly that?
Does DNA have the equivalent of IF-statements, WHILE loops, or function calls?
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Re: Does DNA have the equivalent of IF-statements, WHILE loops, or function calls?
#12That is an interesting thought. I take this with a grain of salt, one gram of DNA is supposedly 455 exabytes of data.
Re: Does DNA have the equivalent of IF-statements, WHILE loops, or function calls?
#13An interesting question because all of this genetic encoding and expression is probabilistic at its very core (it has to be, otherwise there wouldn't be evolution), whereas it would be very bad if basic operations in a CPU had similar level of error rates. Interesting to me how the top comment has talked about constructing logic gates out of biological circuits. I wonder if anyone has done the opposite, i.e., write a…
> whereas it would be very bad if basic operations in a CPU had similar level of error rates
Evolution is about mutations when the executable file is copied.
Re: Does DNA have the equivalent of IF-statements, WHILE loops, or function calls?
#14The KMT2D gene [1] is one example of a gene that I know of that regulates the express of other genes. Defects to this gene often result in the people having the Kabuki Syndrome [2].
If I remember correctly, Bert Hubert in his talk 'DNA: The Code of Life (SHA2017)' [3] gives an example of an IF-behaviour.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KMT2D
Re: Does DNA have the equivalent of IF-statements, WHILE loops, or function calls?
#15> There are no equivalents of function calls. All events happen is the same space and there is always a likelihood of interference. Proof that code with all functions inlined, with only global variables, with bugs and happy accidents all over the place, eventually gains sentience and becomes self aware.
Evolution is a wonderful algorithm - open ended, and yet in a single run it created all life, including human culture and technology.
Re: Does DNA have the equivalent of IF-statements, WHILE loops, or function calls?
#16I teach a creativity and innovation course at my uni. There are many examples I share with my students of inventions which started life as observations of nature (e.g. Velcro came about from observing how burrs stick to the fur of the inventor's dog). My bones tell me that there are discoveries about computing waiting to be made from observing how things are done in nature, particularly in the human mind. I imagine t…
Convolutional neural networks come to mind.
Re: Does DNA have the equivalent of IF-statements, WHILE loops, or function calls?
#17It's like reverse engineering alien technology.
Re: Does DNA have the equivalent of IF-statements, WHILE loops, or function calls?
#18> There are no equivalents of function calls. All events happen is the same space and there is always a likelihood of interference. Proof that code with all functions inlined, with only global variables, with bugs and happy accidents all over the place, eventually gains sentience and becomes self aware.
Maybe that's the true way how to create an AGI...
Re: Does DNA have the equivalent of IF-statements, WHILE loops, or function calls?
#19> There are no equivalents of function calls. All events happen is the same space and there is always a likelihood of interference. Proof that code with all functions inlined, with only global variables, with bugs and happy accidents all over the place, eventually gains sentience and becomes self aware.
Signal transduction is async amplification. And those pathways can branch. Close enough.
Re: Does DNA have the equivalent of IF-statements, WHILE loops, or function calls?
#20Well, DNA might not have programming structures, but it acts like a neural network. See "Gene regulatory network"
> Some proteins though serve only to activate other genes, and these are the transcription factors that are the main players in regulatory networks or cascades. By binding to the promoter region at the start of other genes they turn them on, initiating the production of another protein, and so on. Some transcription factors are inhibitory. [1]
These networks are similar to neural networks in that they process information through a series of interconnected nodes (genes and proteins, in the case of GRNs) that influence each other's activity. The activation or inhibition of one gene by a transcription factor can trigger a cascade of events, much like the way neurons activate each other in a neural networks.