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by WClayFerguson 1974 days ago
About the 'card deck' combinations: That's why we can be virtually certain there are no life forms in the universe that consist of a chain molecule (as it's version of "DNA") where there's more than a handful of different types of molecules along the chain.

Nature is statistically guaranteed to find the simplest patterns first and that's why our life is built on 'binary' (two kinds of 'cards' AT/GC). Life on all planets will likely use binary "information storage", especially because of it's modularity (i.e. it can be cut-n-pasted together in different patterns)
1 comments
kaba0 1974 days ago
Life is not built on ‘binary’, there are 4 bits. All four nucleotides take part in the encoding (reading happens on one thread only).

And since life was presumably started with RNA, we are still talking about 4 base elems

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WClayFerguson 1974 days ago
It's perfectly legitimate to say life stores information using only two "types" of things (AT or GC) which can be oriented one way or another, which is a "binary choice of the type". I explain it that way because it reaches a wider audience (easier to visualize)

However there's always at least one stickler who wants to quibble that the orientation is also a "binary bit" of information. Congratulations, you're him today!!

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kaba0 1974 days ago
I did think about that, that’s why I added the second paragraph, namely that what about RNAs? (Since presumably they precede the DNA world) They can self-bind (I don’t know the proper nomenclature in English), but by all means they have 4 bases.
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WClayFerguson 1974 days ago
There's two kinds of base pairs, is identical to there's 4 kinds of bases.
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kaba0 1974 days ago
RNAs are a single chain. Your point makes no sense.

A code with a 4 letter alphabet would be 2 letter, if it happened to use a parity “bit” or other error correction info?

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WClayFerguson 1973 days ago
I never said RNA was built on two types of molecules. I said DNA was.
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