Theoretical origin of life;England's physics theory (Introduction)

by dhw, Friday, July 28, 2017, 11:34 (2435 days ago) @ David Turell

QUOTE: […] the true hallmark of biological systems: their information-processing capacity. From simple chemotaxis (the ability of bacteria to move toward nutrient concentrations or away from poisons) to human communication, life-forms take in and respond to information about their environment. (David’s bold)[/i]

DAVID’s comment : Life is more than physical chemistry. Note my bolds: Life requires information to begin. It must be capable of processing it, copying it and passing it to descendants. (dhw's bold)

dhw: Information is always present in physical chemistry and in everything else that you can think of, organic and inorganic. The point is not that “life requires information to begin” but that life requires an information-processing capacity (your bold and mine), and the true hallmark of all biological systems is the capacity for processing, copying, passing and using information, communicating, cooperating, decision-making etc., which some of us would call intelligence.

DAVID: A process which automatically decodes the instructions in DNA gives the appearance of intelligence. I propose that original life was both given information and the ability to act upon it automatically.

I was pointing out that your statement “life requires information to begin” missed out the all-important point that even you had put in bold: namely, the ability to process information. We both know one another’s proposals, and I still await your definition of intelligence.-

DAVID's comment: (under "Information: applied to matter creates life") Information which can be used by the proteins of life somehow creates active life. Since Schrodinger's book there is still no answer as to how this happens. The proteins are material but the mechanism of life itself is an immaterial process.

Information is present in everything but creates nothing. It is a particular USE of information that creates things.


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