Information Age

If we have, in the most basic sense, DNA (information) Ribosome (a decoder) and a cell (the machine), there is a very logical reason these must be assembled simultaneously and that no stepwise process will ever make sense. Information cannot, ever, precede the apparatus that reads or decodes it. 

To think that it can is to believe the following can have meaning if I type it without any purpose or thought:

Adks alskskj lskdk skd  alkewoik lwkdk dilwkdo owijdk ow kdjl lkojwfk l fkjw lkdiwl ksoek lkdkjoiwkd  kdkow ow l dkowk ouwk lkd ljwlkle. Adkvttavtta alvttadkvttakj lvttakdk vttakd  alkewoik lwkdk dilwkdo owijdk ow kdjl lkojwfk l fkjw lkdiwl kvttaoek lkdkjoiwkd  kdkow ow l dkowk ouwk lkd ljwlkle.

Ask yourself, what it would mean for you to ‘decode’ this when I ,who typed it(!!) didn’t give it any meaning?  It is literally meaningless.  SO even if you had a perfect strand of DNA it would not mean anything, and be no closer to producing ‘life’ than the text above. 

If we perfectly preserved a strand of human dna, but all cells on the surface of earth were removed – a future race could NEVER decode the dna.  That dna would never, ever, produce a human being.

--%--

On the impossibility (and logical absurdity) of information preceding the information processing systems coupled with it, Walker and Davies note:

… beyond the chemical difficulties associated with synthesis and stability of primitive genetic polymers, lies a deeper conceptual challenge within the “digital–first” picture. As remarked above, the proteome – and in fact nearly all biochemical interactions in the cell – process information in an analog format, i.e. through chemical reactions which rely on continuous rates.

For example, much of the information digitally stored in DNA must be first transcribed and translated before it becomes algorithmically meaningful in the context of the cell where it is then processed as analog information through protein interaction networks.

Translation: DNA cannot exist independently of, or prior to, the cell and ribosome – to the algorithmic processes which give it meaning!

The (Failed) Assumption

Present research works under the assumption that some 'threshold of complexity' can be reached to cross what is a divide of Kind and not Degree.

Chemical arrangements --the product of physics, or physical laws-- and logical systems --as in bio-logical-- are distinct KINDS.  One is mathematical and geometric and deals with the world of effects required by law; the other is logical and sequential (linguistic) deals with the world of causes. 

Chemical behavior is a universal constant (to the best of our knowledge), the behavior of organisms is an individual affair; each living thing behaving in the specific way, completely unique, that favors it.  Thus, universal and singular (or autonomous) behaviors are complimentary.  One does not entail or ‘give rise’ to the other… Walker and Davies comment:

Although trivial self-replicators can undergo Darwinian evolution, the lack of separation between algorithm and implementation implies that mono-molecular systems are divided from known life by a logical and organizational chasm that cannot be crossed by mere complexification of passive hardware. In that respect we regard the case of the RNA world as currently understood as falling short of being truly living.

If primitive “life” was strictly monomolecular, there would be no way to physically decouple information and control from the hardware it operates on, resulting in unreliable information protocols due to noisy information channels. For this rather deep reason, it may be that life had to be “bimolecular” from the start.

Bi-molecular DNA and Cell.  What this means is that life was not, and conceptually cannot be the consequence of any chain of purely chemical events.  The “chasm” which cannot be crossed by “complexification” refers to the fact that, like any self-contained intradependent system (such as a computer), the logic of the device MUST have all of the parts from the beginning.  A CPU cannot exist apart from the motherboard it operates in.  It is a logical absurdity because it would require the precision of the circuit, while at the same time having no function (i.e. a circuit board to interface with). 

Programming

This highlights the distinction between differences of degree and kind. LIFE is distinct from chemical behavior by kind, and not degree.  Thus, “time” (even billions of years) has no bearing on this unbridgeable gap. 

A microwave and airplane differ as a matter of kind.  A 747 and a DC-10 differ by degree.  This is because a microwave IS fundamentally a different TYPE of thing, with a different function and unique (and distinct) manifest behavior.   No amount of microwave ovens, in any combination will make an airplane.

In the same way you cannot express ideas using only numbers, and no amount of numerical 'expression' may achieve Natural language.  Try it!

Try to say: “Hello friend” using numbers.** 11211212121?