Embedded Files
Reading/References
Schematic of a Cell.
How did life on earth begin? BBC
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-body-review-the-magnificent-machine-11570805284
How to create a mind-Ray Kurzweil.
A world beyond Physics. Stuart Kauffman.
The origin of life. JBS Haldane.
Intelligent machinery, Partha Mitra.
Feedback control of dynamic systems
Mindstorms kit
Intelligent machinery. Alan Turing
Imitation game. Alan Turing
Edge. Paul Brockman.
John Neuman machine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_von_Neumann
Thinking about the Brain. Francis Crick.
Q 1. Physical vs biological machines
Mechanistically similar but functionally different, on a deeper glance. Humans are the product of 3.5 billion years of evolution, starting with Coacervates (organic molecules with a spontaneous propensity to grow and divide) coming in contact with water in a warm pond and the right atmospheric conditions. Their lipid bilayer like property resulted in an incubator trapping various amino acids which constituted into proteins and somehow resulted in the ATP & replication/reproduction machinery. While, there are several gaps in our understanding, it appears that the mathematical probability of some of the required events are equivalent to the likelihood of a passing tornado in a junkyard resulting in the assembly a Boeing 747 albeit hyperbolically-Hoyle's conjecture. In any case, the 2 million moving parts of a cell (almost same as a 747) are able to replicate itself with a high fidelity every 2-3 days (as in the case of gut cells). An impossible feat comparable to a jumbo jet replicating itself but unique to biological machines.
Biological machines are also different for a more fundamental reason, in that they have a different point of origin. The starting point for a machine (essentially tools) has been to enable and amplify human capabilities with the overarching goal of enhancing human life and survival. Physical machines are fundamentally not Kantian wholes unlike biological machines in that each part exists for and by the whole organism (a heart exists for and by the body). A physical machine unlike a biological machine from a reductionist standpoint is not serving itself. In contrast, living organisms are serving natures goal of DNA/RNA propagation (with enhancements & increasing complexity. Keeping with entropy and second law of thermodynamics). This itself may be the property of some particle. A structure-function model.
As an aside, Crick pursued the structure-function model with regards to consciousness spending the last several decades working on consciousness. As for life, in which case it was the DNA, his idea was that consciousness was a function of claustrum which connects the cortex to the thalamus and other subcortical regions. Consciousness to him was not some metaphysical illusion in a philosophers mind.
Lastly, there is also the question of recursiveness. Don’t know if physical and biological machines equally recursive?
Q 2. What are machines?
Machines are made up of parts and so are living beings. However, machines think through a computer and only know what was given to them. They have no thoughts and don't feel anything. Additionally, machines can't do anything original. The intelligence of a machine is directly proportional to the human that is creating the machine.
Q3. What are living beings?
Humans and other living beings have emotion and can express it. For example, if you get shot, you will feel pain and will be able to express it through sound or expression. Living beings are able to feel pain because there are circuts all over our bodies that send signals to the brain instantaneously.
Q4. How did living beings come about?
The oldest known fossils are around 3.5 billion years old, 14 times the age of the oldest dinosaurs, who started 250 million years old but went extinct 66 million years ago. You might not think you look much like a catfish or a Tyrannosaurus rex, but a microscope will reveal that you are all made of pretty similar kinds of cells. So are plants and fungi. Prior to the big biological breakthrough of the 19th Century by Charles Darwin and others of the theory of evolution, living beings were attributed to vitalism and biotic energy. In On the Origin of Species in 1859, Darwin explained how the vast diversity of life could all have arisen from a single common ancestor, a primordial organism that lived millions of years ago; the last universal common ancestor.
Q5. Did machines also evolve?
Yes conceivably. But unlike biological systems they often do not retain vestiges of their earlier versions.
Q6. What are the differences (Not common)?
1. Machines do not have life, as they are mechanical. On the other hand, humans are made of flesh and blood; life is not mechanical for humans.
2. Humans have feelings and emotions, and they can express these emotions. Machines have no feelings and emotions. They just work as per the details fed into their mechanical brain.
3. Humans can do anything original, and machines cannot.
4. Humans have the capability to understand situations, and behave accordingly. On the contrary, machines do not have this capability.
5. While humans behave as per their consciousness, machines just perform as they are taught.
6. Humans perform activities as per their own intelligence. On the contrary, machines only have an artificial intelligence
Q7. How is the knowledge about lessons learnt stored? For living and things and machines?
Machines don't learn from error unless they are programmed to correct the error that was made. Living beings remember and associate their actions with past experiences. For example, if you fell while skiing due to leaning back, you will associate the feeling of pain with leaning back on skiis. Since this is not a fovorable feeling, we will remind ourselves to lean forward more.
Q8. What does the biological evolution teach us?
It can help us predict what we and machines will be like in the future.
Q9. What makes something living?
While organic chemicals do not dissolve in water (oil forms a layer on top of water), yet when some of these chemicals form spherical globules called "coacervates", which can be up to 0.01cm (0.004 inches) across when left in contact with water. Under a microscope, coacervates, behave like living cells. They grow and change shape, and sometimes dividing into two. They can also take in chemicals from the surrounding water, so life-like chemicals can become concentrated inside them.Coacervates may be ancestors of modern cells.
So did life originate from dead matter?
Until about 200 years ago living beings were thought to arise from dead matter. Pasteur and Darwin showed this not to be the case.
Q9. Are biological machines logical?
Q10. Are physical machines logical?
Q11. Assuming that physical machine becomes independant could they claim intelligence?
Q12. What is intelligence?
Q13. What are the irreducible elements of a machine?
What are the core building blocks?
What one thing touches everything else?
Let us use the analogy of sports.
What common attributes would be helpful for all games?
Q14. What are the irreducible elements of the biological system?
What are the core building blocks?
Are there Generalizations?
Is there a Jack-of-all-trades?
Think about how most life (75-90%) came to an end almost 66 million years ago.
Or 99.9% of life may have come to an end about 1 billion years ago.
Irreducible elements of living beings are cells.
Irreducible elements of physical things are atoms.
Q15. Differences between various life forms?
Complexity
Born or delivered differently
Humans are shipped incomplete and so have to spend 18 years learning from parents. Spiders on the hand are born self suffcient ready to hunt.
Q16. What are the starting points for each?
Q17. What is the central purpose of life?
Q Is there a reason for having life? Or was it just happenchance?
Machines
Living Things
Common
Ques: In thinking about physical things while individual machines are not living what about the world which is a collection of the machines and so many different objects. Even removing living things from the equation is it like living? Power is the central need. Just like for the living-power is a central need.
Common
Self replication
Metabolism
Intelligence
Repetable units
A complete living cell
The tree includes 92 named bacterial phyla, 26 archaeal phyla and all five of the Eukaryotic supergroups. Major lineages are assigned arbitrary colours and named, with well-characterized lineage names, in italics. Lineages lacking an isolated representative are highlighted with non-italicized names and red dots. For details on taxon sampling and tree inference, see Methods. The names Tenericutes and Thermodesulfobacteria are bracketed to indicate that these lineages branch within the Firmicutes and the Deltaproteobacteria, respectively. Eukaryotic supergroups are noted, but not otherwise delineated due to the low resolution of these lineages. The CPR phyla are assigned a single colour as they are composed entirely of organisms without isolated representatives, and are still in the process of definition at lower taxonomic levels. The complete ribosomal protein tree is available in rectangular format with full bootstrap values as Supplementary Fig. 1 and in Newick format in Supplementary Dataset 2.
A summary on physical vs biological machines
Physical and biological machines while, comparable mechanistically are fundamentally different, on a deeper glance.
We humans are the product of 3.5 billion years of evolution, starting with the organic molecules (coacervates) coming in contact with water in a warm pond and other right condition. Given their lipid bilayer like property (coacervates also have a propensity to grow and divide) these became an incubator, trapping various amino acids which constituted into proteins and somehow resulted in the ATP & replication/reproduction machinery. There are many gaps in our understanding, but it seems that the mathematical probability of some of the required events are equivalent to the likelihood of a passing tornado in a junkyard resulting in the assembly a Boeing 747 albeit hyperbolically-Hoyle's conjecture. In any case, the 2 million moving parts of a cell (same as a 747) are able to replicate itself with a high fidelity every 2-3 days (as in the case of gut cells). An amazing feat which would be like a jumbo jet replicating itself. While similar in that there are various parts each with a purpose and the system needs energy, the physical machines cannot reproduce.
They are also different for a more fundamental reason, in that they have a different starting point. The starting point for a machine (essentially tools) has been to enable and amplify human capabilities with the overarching goal of enhancing human life and survival. Physical machines are fundamentally not Kantian wholes unlike biological machines in that each part exists for and by the whole organism (a heart exists for and by the body). A physical machine unlike a biological machine from a reductionist standpoint is not serving itself. In contrast, living organisms are serving natures goal of DNA/RNA propagation (with enhancements & increasing complexity. Keeping with entropy and second law of thermodynamics). This itself may be the property of some particle. A structure-function model.
As an aside, Crick pursued the structure-function model with regards to consciousness spending the last several decades working on consciousness. As for life, in which case it was the DNA, his idea was that consciousness was a function of claustrum which connects the cortex to the thalamus and other subcortical regions. Consciousness to him was not some metaphysical illusion in a philosophers mind.
Lastly, there is also the question of recursiveness. Don’t know if physical and biological machines equally recursive?
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