Personalities. Charles Darwin John Maynard Smith Alan Turing John von Neumann Sewell Wright

Transcription

1 Personalities Charles Darwin John Maynard Smith Alan Turing John von Neumann Sewell Wright

2 Good questions Major transitions [JMSmith & ESzathmary95] Replicating molecules Chromosomes linkage among self-replicating molecules RNA -> DNA / protein separarating gene and enzyme Eukaryotes Mitochodria, chloroplasts inclusion in cell

3 Good questions (cont.) Sex Most eukaryotes reproduce sexually Multicellularity via mitosis Social groups Panspermia Intelligent design

4 Reproduction Genes perturb the (initially) abiotic physical world s chemistry Self-replication Biological growth Logistic growth Deterministic chaos

5 Genes perturb the (initially) abiotic physical world s chemistry The arrangements of the atoms in the most vital parts of an organism and the interplay of these arrangements differ in a fundamental way from all those arrangements of atoms which physicists and chemists have hitherto made the object of their experimental and theoretical research. Yet the difference which I have just termed fundamental is of such a kind that it might easily appear slight to anyone except a physicist who is thoroughly imbued with the knowledge that the laws of physics and chemistry are statistical throughout. For it is in relation to the statistical point of view that the structure of the vital parts of living organisms differs so entirely from that of any piece of matter that we physicists and chemists have ever handled physically in our laboratories or mentally at our writing desks.... the most essential part of a living cell - the chromosome fibre - may suitably be called an aperiodic crystal. In physics we have dealt hitherto only with periodic crystals. To a humble physicist's mind, these are very interesting and complicated objects; they constitute one of the most fascinating and complex material structures by which inanimate nature puzzles his wits. Yet, compared with the aperiodic crystal, they are rather plain and dull. The difference in structure is of the same kind as that between an ordinary wallpaper in which the same pattern is repeated again and again in regular periodicity and a masterpiece of embroidery, say a Raphael tapestry, which shows no dull repetition, but an elaborate, coherent, meaningful design traced by the great master. In calling the periodic crystal one of the most complex objects of his research, I had in mind the physicist proper. Organic chemistry, indeed, in investigating more and more complicated molecules, has come very much nearer to that 'aperiodic crystal' which, in my opinion, is the material carrier of life. (p. 4,5) E. Schrodinger, What is Life (1944)

6 SR automata [von Neuman, 1949] John von Neumann transcription, translation language remains A. W. Burks, ed., `Essays on Cellular Automata', University of Illinois Press, Urbana, omplexity/html-single/ SR Cellular automata Christopher David Osborn (Cambridge, UK)

7 Quine program that produces itself as output when run cf. Douglas R. Hofstadter, Godel, Escher, and Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid. Basic Books, Inc. New York, New York., 1979 (Pulitzer Prize!)... named after W. V. Quine, who made an extensive study of indirect self-reference: he coined, among others, the paradox-producing expression, "yields falsehood when appended to its own quotation." - Wikipedia, 1 Apr 04

8 Examples in programming languages: Python MSDOS C LISP Perl

9 Python a='a=%s;print a%%`a`';print a%`a`

10 off %1 %2 call %0 goto e %% call %0 goto e %%3 echo.%%4 echo :f goto f :e echo.%4@echo off echo.%4%31 %32 echo.%4call %30 goto e %3%3 echo.%4call %30 goto e %3%33 echo.%3%34 echo.%4echo :f echo.%4goto f echo.%4:e :f

11 C char x[]="char x[]=%c%s%c;%cint main() {printf(x,34,x,34,10,10);return 0;}%c"; int main() {printf(x,34,x,34,10,10);return 0;}

12 LISP ((lambda (x) (list x (list (quote quote) x))) (quote (lambda (x) (list x (list (quote quote) x)))))

13 Perl $_=q{$_=q{q};s/q/$_/;print};s/q/$_/;print