Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Does DNA have the equivalent of IF-statements, WHILE loops, or function calls?

biology.stackexchange.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 204 posts

Re: Does DNA have the equivalent of IF-statements, WHILE loops, or function calls?

#121

Post by gumballindie »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #117
gumballindie wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> now have proof in terms of intelligence of ChatGPT What.

You are intelligent. But we could get an equally-intelligent reply out of ChatGPT. Ergo, it's also intelligent.

Yeah no, that's bullshit. It's like saying my laptop emits sound, meaning it can sing.

Re: Does DNA have the equivalent of IF-statements, WHILE loops, or function calls?

#122

Post by hnthrowaway0328 »

Judging from:

>It is also to be noted that DNA is just a set of instructions and not really a fully functional entity (it is functional to some extent). However, even being just a code it is comparable to a HLL code that has to be compiled to execute its functions. See this post too.

Maybe microcode?

Re: Does DNA have the equivalent of IF-statements, WHILE loops, or function calls?

#123

Post by andreyvit »

bmartin13 wrote: post #110

I'm pretty sure something this complex came from a higher order being. That whole order from chaos argument is not holding water for me with this degree of complexity.

I'm afraid your intuition about complexity misleads you here. If you'd like to learn more, spend some time with say evolutionary algorithms. It's not a big time commitment; playing around for a couple days will likely be enough. You'll find how the crap an evolution-style search comes up with is really similar to how nature works: a few beautiful core finds + a big pile of hacks of varying craziness, some of them totally bonkers, and quite a bit of insane reuse of things one would never consider reusing.

Re: Does DNA have the equivalent of IF-statements, WHILE loops, or function calls?

#124

Post by OkayPhysicist »

breischl wrote: post #108
Daub wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure that nature and logic are related in the way you imply. A different question: Is not the atomic indivisible of computing no more that a simple switch? A binary? Is there an equivalent for this in the human mind/brain? I suspect not but would like to hear from someone who knows more.

>Is not the atomic indivisible of computing no more that a simple switch? A binary? It is for the dominant computing paradigm currently in use, but that isn't a universal truth. As I understand it, we use binary logic primarily because it's more tractable for humans to think about and work with, not because it's the only option or even the best option in all cases. For instance there are plenty of analog computers in…

To my understanding, the main advantage of digital over analog logic in computing was (and probably still is) its resistance to small errors. Nonlinear components like transistors and vacuum tubes aren't exactly the most consistent parts, and factors like ambient temperature can make even otherwise linear parts a little wonky. The "on/off" paradigm gives you a lot of tolerance of deviations from the ideal. Storage is also a big factor: it's really hard to store analog values, whereas on/off is approximately trivial.

Re: Does DNA have the equivalent of IF-statements, WHILE loops, or function calls?

#125

Post by rsingla »

For an individual interested in computational biology, or George church's course is excellent.

From the description: "This course will assess the relationships among sequence, structure, and function in complex biological networks as well as progress in realistic modeling of quantitative, comprehensive, functional genomics analyses. Exercises will include algorithmic, statistical, database, and simulation approaches and practical applications to medicine, biotechnology, drug discovery, and genetic engineering."

https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/hst-508-genomics-and-computation...

Re: Does DNA have the equivalent of IF-statements, WHILE loops, or function calls?

#126

Post by pama »

JoBrad wrote: post #68

So in Biology everything is a global variable and side effects are the standard. Got it.

Global variables are true for viruses or single cell organisms. There is locality between different cells and partial locality within cell compartments. So not everything is a global variable.

Re: Does DNA have the equivalent of IF-statements, WHILE loops, or function calls?

#127

Post by spaceribs »

hnthrowaway0328 wrote: post #122

Judging from: >It is also to be noted that DNA is just a set of instructions and not really a fully functional entity (it is functional to some extent). However, even being just a code it is comparable to a HLL code that has to be compiled to execute its functions. See this post too. Maybe microcode?

After reading the reason why code isn't a good analogy, the mechanical/analog logic of old pinball machines might be a better example of how DNA processes instructions?

Ref: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3p_Cv32tEo

Re: Does DNA have the equivalent of IF-statements, WHILE loops, or function calls?

#129

Post by roughly »

Something to be aware of as a computer person coming into biology: Biology only _looks_ like it has logical constructs, abstraction layers, and general computational frameworks. When you start working with it, you'll find everything is messier than you expected and everything interacts with everything at every level. There are no abstractions, there are no actual boundaries, and your outputs are subject to evolutionary pressures even when sitting in a flask. Many an engineer has washed aground on the rocky shores of biological indeterminism - it's not a machine, no matter how much it kind of looks like one when you squint at it.

Re: Does DNA have the equivalent of IF-statements, WHILE loops, or function calls?

#130

Post by dullcrisp »

roughly wrote: post #129

Something to be aware of as a computer person coming into biology: Biology only _looks_ like it has logical constructs, abstraction layers, and general computational frameworks. When you start working with it, you'll find everything is messier than you expected and everything interacts with everything at every level. There are no abstractions, there are no actual boundaries, and your outputs are subject to evolutiona…

So just like my codebase then
Post reply on HN