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What physical ‘life force’ turns biology’s wheels?

quantamagazine.org

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Re: What physical ‘life force’ turns biology’s wheels?

#11

Post by 01HNNWZ0MV43FF »

ssivark wrote: post #6
Almured wrote: post #2

What I find fascinating is the extreme efficiency of what is effectively an electric motor, reaching nearly 100% efficiency. At human scale we struggle with heat dissipation and friction

But at the same time the motor is extremely finicky/fragile in the source of energy (negentropy) it will accept, while natural life is extremely hardy and adaptable. I wonder how much of machine-like "efficiency" is actually "overfitting" at the cost of robustness.

The need to reproduce and repair our bodies is a big trade-off.

Electric motors are sort of like hermit crab shells - Hard and long-lasting, but they only exist because they piggyback off of a living species.

Re: What physical ‘life force’ turns biology’s wheels?

#12

Post by f6v »

ur-whale wrote: post #7
zimpenfish wrote: post #4

For some context, a billion years at a 20 minute breeding cycle is 26.3 trillion generations.

> For some context, a billion years at a 20 minute breeding cycle is 26.3 trillion generations. Which if you want an actual feel for the true scale of things, must be multiplied by (order of magnitude) the number of bacteriums on the planet.

> Which if you want an actual feel for the true scale of things

The caveat is that more zeros do nothing for our comprehension of the scale. That's the problem because most people can't comprehend how evolution is even possible. We just don't have a mental model for a trillion, it's all the same to us after a certain threshold.

Re: What physical ‘life force’ turns biology’s wheels?

#14

Post by anjel »

ssivark wrote: post #6
Almured wrote: post #2

What I find fascinating is the extreme efficiency of what is effectively an electric motor, reaching nearly 100% efficiency. At human scale we struggle with heat dissipation and friction

But at the same time the motor is extremely finicky/fragile in the source of energy (negentropy) it will accept, while natural life is extremely hardy and adaptable. I wonder how much of machine-like "efficiency" is actually "overfitting" at the cost of robustness.

For more complicated organisms, robustness comes in the form of cellular turnover, and regenerative healing in response to injury, at least in youth. I wonder though if single celled organisms have or even need such a function.

Re: What physical ‘life force’ turns biology’s wheels?

#15

Post by djokkataja »

This reminds me of a gem of a comment from about a month back, about a dead simple Russian guidance system from a Cold War-era missile: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47389285

Actually, someone even commented in that thread about how it was similar to biological mechanisms: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47390619

Re: What physical ‘life force’ turns biology’s wheels?

#16

Post by brazzy »

anjel wrote: post #14
ssivark wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But at the same time the motor is extremely finicky/fragile in the source of energy (negentropy) it will accept, while natural life is extremely hardy and adaptable. I wonder how much of machine-like "efficiency" is actually "overfitting" at the cost of robustness.

For more complicated organisms, robustness comes in the form of cellular turnover, and regenerative healing in response to injury, at least in youth. I wonder though if single celled organisms have or even need such a function.

Individual cells absolutely do have mechanisms to repair damage: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5664224/

They can even repair their own DNA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_repair

Re: What physical ‘life force’ turns biology’s wheels?

#19

Post by kranner »

djokkataja wrote: post #15

This reminds me of a gem of a comment from about a month back, about a dead simple Russian guidance system from a Cold War-era missile: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47389285 Actually, someone even commented in that thread about how it was similar to biological mechanisms: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47390619

For explorations of simple mechanisms like this leading to complex behaviour, Valentino Braitenberg’s book Vehicles is a classic.

Re: What physical ‘life force’ turns biology’s wheels?

#20

Post by bryancoxwell »

kranner wrote: post #19
djokkataja wrote: post #15

This reminds me of a gem of a comment from about a month back, about a dead simple Russian guidance system from a Cold War-era missile: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47389285 Actually, someone even commented in that thread about how it was similar to biological mechanisms: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47390619

For explorations of simple mechanisms like this leading to complex behaviour, Valentino Braitenberg’s book Vehicles is a classic.

Would it do well on a Kindle or does it rely on illustrations?
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