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by bootload 5027 days ago
"... The origin of life has the characteristic that there's something in there as a chemist, I don't understand how you go from a system that's random chemicals to something that becomes, in a sense, a Darwinian set of reactions that are getting more complicated spontaneously. ..."

Interesting. Turing had a go at this in his last paper, "The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis," [0] ~ http://www.dna.caltech.edu/courses/cs191/paperscs191/turing..... attempted to answer the theoretical explanation of the biological process that defines the shape of an embryonic organism from creation. This process is called "Morphogenesis" This is an important problem because complex organisms appear to be created by some "random" process that organises what appear to be self similar cells. (previously written at ~ http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3077817
2 comments
joshuaeckroth 5027 days ago
There is a recent keynote[1] by Christos H. Papadimitriou about Turing and Darwin, and Turing's paper that you mentioned. The talk also ends with a very emotional account of the speaker's connection with Turing.

[1]: http://videolectures.net/aaai2012_papadimitriou_computable_n...

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001sky 5027 days ago
What's interesting about "Morphogenesis" is that a sub-set of matter transitions from existing [qua existing] to existing under a purposeful[1] structure [ie, existing for a purpose]. This is a notable change. It's even more interesting, in the context of evolution, because these structures are not just propogating, but doing so in a very unique way (ie, one that has an informational feedback loop). If the purpose of the structure is merely to propogate, why a feedback loop? why not perfect replication? Why does one need variation for replication? Why does something need to propogate in a better way than simple replication? Etc. And thus the interplay between the origins of and the evolution of such structures is framed as a relevant problem for Science.[2]

[1] Or, 'Functional' as an alternative formulation. [2] As in, problem to solve. Not a counterargument against.

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