Part MMCCCXV
Future of Informatics - Chapter 2
Chapter 2: EVOLUTION - FROM BIOLOGICAL to
NON-BIOLOGICAL ONE and TO THEIR MERGE
EVOLUTION
FROM BIOLOGICAL to NON-BIOLOGICAL
and
TO THEIR MERGE
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 2/1
CONTENTS
Main thoughts and standpoints.
Six epochs of the world.
Presentation and analysis of Epoch 1 - evolution of
matter.
Presentation and analysis of Epoch 2 - evolution of life.
Presentation and analysis of Epoch 3 - evolution of
brain
Presentation and analysis of Epoch 4 - evolution of
biological intelligence and its technology.
Presentation and analysis of Epoch 5 evolution of
non-biological intelligence - Singularity
Presentation and analysis of Epoch 6 - evolution of
post-singularity - universe gets full of intelligence .
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 3/1
DEEP THOUGHTS - I.
The further backward you look, the further forward you
can see.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Our sole responsibility is to produce something smarter
than we are; any problems beyond that are not ours to
solve.
There are no hard problems, only problems that are
hard to a certain level of intelligence.
Move the smallest bit upwards [in the level of
intelligence] and some problem move suddenly from
”impossible’ to ”obvious”.Move a substantial degree
upwards, and all of them become obvious.
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (1979-)
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 4/1
DEEP THOUGHTS - II.
In the game of life and evolution there are three players
at the table: nature, human beings and machines.
I am firmly on the side of nature.
But nature, I suspect, is on the side of machines.
George Dyson, 1953, historian of technology
We seem to have power that goes beyond our
understanding.
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 5/1
SOME BASIC STANDPOINTS - ASSUMPTIONS
Basic assumption 1: Tools and methods of storing and
processing information are driving forces of evolution.
Basic assumption 2: Patternism: Patterns of
information are fundamental reality. (Example:
particles composing our brain and body parts keep
changing within weeks - their patterns remain and they
actually create brain and other parts of our body.)
Basic assumption 3: Evolution can be seen as creating
patterns of increasing order and complexity.
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 6/1
SIX EPOCHS of EVOLUTION
Basic observation: Each epoch creates a capability to use information-processing tools of
the previous epoch to create the basis of the next epoch.
Epoch 1: Information is stored in the basic physical and chemical structures.
Epoch 2: Information is stored in DNA - the basis of biological evolution - and
proteins are basic tools to use this information to create and guide development of
living beings.
Epoch 3: Information is in neural patterns and brains develop as qualitatively new
tools to store and process information.
Epoch 4. Brain is used to develop intelligence and that in turn is used to develop
better technologies to store and process information.
Epoch 5: Biological intelligence develops non-biological intelligence and a merge of
biological and non-biological intelligence follows.
Epoch 6: The Universe gets saturated with knowledge, with non-biological
intelligence and with its processing systems.
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 7/1
BASIC RULE and WISDOM of the EVOLUTION
Summary: Evolution works through indirection: in each
epoch it creates a capability and tools and then uses
them to evolve the next epoch.
Wisdom: First we build the tools, then they build us.
Marshal McLuhan
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 8/1
VISUALISATION of SIX EPOCHS
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 9/1
COUNTDOWN to SINGULARITY I
Logarithmic plot in the following picture shows continual acceleration of biological and
technological evolution (two billion years from the origin of life to cells; 14 years from PC
to the World Wide Web).
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 10/1
COUNTDOWN to SINGULARITY Ia
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 11/1
COUNTDOWN to SINGULARITY II
This time continual acceleration of biological and technological evolution is shown in a
linear plot (two billion years from the origin of life to cells; 14 years from PC to the World
Wide Web).
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 12/1
KEY EVENTS MAKING CHANGES IN HISTORY of MANKIND
Key events that used to play very important role in
changing thinking of human society are called
paradigms and superparadigms.
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 13/1
PARADIGMS and SUPERPARDIGMS
The clock, steam engine and computer have all inspired
metaphorical frameworks for science that can be called
super-paradigms.
A paradigm can be viewed as a framework of thought
within which researchers in a given field practice
”normal science”.
Each new paradigm leads to a different way of the
understanding of nature; offers new insights to old
things; as well as suggests new avenues of investigation
that lead to new discoveries.
A superparadigm is a point of view about what’s
ultimately fundamental in determining what is
happening in the world.
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 14/1
PARADIGMS SHIFTS
The following picture shows major paradigm shifts in the history of the world as seen by
15 different lists of the key events of history.
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 15/1
EPOCH 1 - CREATION of INFORMATION PROCESSING
UNIVERSE - I.
Information processing is an important way how to see the universe and its development.
The universe is made of bits. Every elementary particle,
atom and molecule registers bits of information.
Every interaction between those fundamental entities of
the universe process information by altering their bits.
We can therefore see universe as doing all the
time information processing.
Since the universe is governed by the laws of quantum
mechanics, it keeps doing quantum information
processing - on quantum bits.
Universe can therefore be seen as huge quantum
information processing system that keeps doing
quantum ”computing”prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 16/1
WHAT IS UNIVERSE COMPUTING?
If Universe can be seen as huge quantum
information processing systems that keeps
”computing”, then the following question naturally
arises:
What is the universe,
as huge quantum information processing system,
computing?
Answer: Universe is computing its own evolution.
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 17/1
STORY of CREATION of PHYSICS and CHEMISTRY ELEMENTS
We can trace our origins to an era where information
was represented in the basic structures of universe - in
patterns of matter and energy.
A few thousands years after Big Bang, atoms began to
be formed, as electrons became trapped in orbits
around nuclei consisting of protons and neutrons.
Chemistry elements were borned few million years later
as atoms came together to create relatively stable
structures called molecules.
Of all the element, the carbon proved to be the most
versatile - it is able to form bonds in four directions.
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 18/1
CARBON MOLECULE
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 19/1
BRIEF STORY OF UNIVERSE
The universe began a little less than 14 billion years ago in a huge explosion called
Big Bang.
As universe expanded and cooled down, various forms of matter condensed out of
the cosmic soap (in which energy was the ”main player”).
Three minutes after the Big Bang, the building blocks for simple atoms such as
hydrogen and helium had formed.
These building blocks clumped together under the influence of gravity to form the
first stars and galaxies about 200 million years after the Big Bang.
Our own sun and solar system were formed 5 billions years ago.
Life on earth was up a little over a billion years later.
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 20/1
BIG QUESTIONS - ??????
How could something - Big Bang- came out of
nothing?
Were time and space before the Big Bang?
Current view is that there was no time and no
space before Big Bang and they started to exist
after Big Bang.
Another view is that before Big Bang there was
totaly chaotic system in which Big Bang emerged.
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 21/1
INFORMATION STORY of UNIVERSE - I.
After the Big Bang the universe was simple - it required
few bits to describe it.
The early universe remained simple, but for a very short
time only. It could be described by just a few bits of
information. The energy that was created was so called
free energy.
As universe expanded, it pulled more and more energy
out of the underlying fabric of time and space.
The free energy in quantum fields was converted into
the heat, entropy was increased, and all sorts of
elementary particles were created.
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 22/1
INFORMATION STORY of UNIVERSE - II.
After a billionth of a second the amount of information
contained in the universe was of the order of 1050
bits.
During that first billionth of a second the universe
performed about 1067
elementary operations on its bits;
there was very little of free energy - that is of order - at
that time.
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 23/1
INFORMATION STORY of UNIVERSE - II.
Protons and neutrons, particles that make up the nuclei
of atoms, condensed out during a little more than one
millionth of a second after the Big Bang.
After 3 minutes the nuclei of the lightweighted atoms hydrogen,
helium,... - had condensed.
380 000 years after the Big Bang electrons cooled
enough so stable atoms could be formed.
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 24/1
FROM MATTER, ENERGY and ENTROPY to INFORMATION
FROM MATTER, ENERGY and ENTROPY
to
INFORMATION
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 25/1
STRUCTURE of ATOMS - BASIC FACTS I.
Atoms are typically a few ten-billionths of a metre
across - tiny spheres held together by electricity.
An atom consists of a compact nucleus (100 000 times
smaller) made up of (positively charged) protons and
(without charge) neutrons.
A nucleus is surrounded by a cloud of electrons whose
masses are a couple of thousand times smaller that
those of protons or neutrons.
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 26/1
STRUCTURE of ATOMS - BASIC FACTS I.
Atoms are typically a few ten-billionths of a metre
across - tiny spheres held together by electricity.
An atom consists of a compact nucleus (100 000 times
smaller) made up of (positively charged) protons and
(without charge) neutrons.
A nucleus is surrounded by a cloud of electrons whose
masses are a couple of thousand times smaller that
those of protons or neutrons.
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 27/1
STRUCTURE of ATOMS - BASIC FACTS I.
A nucleus is surrounded by a cloud of electrons whose masses are a couple of
thousand times smaller that those of protons or neutrons.
Electrons are negatively charged, so they are attracted to the positively charged
nucleus and there are the same number of electrons as there are protons in the core
and therefore each atom as the whole is electrically neutral.
Each electron has a wave associated with its position and velocity. The places where
its wave is big are places where electrons are likely to be found. The shorter the
length of the wave, the faster is electron moving.
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 28/1
STRUCTURE of ATOMS - BASIC FACTS II
The rate at which the wave of an electron wiggles up and down is proportional to
electron’s energy.
Suppose we want to fit electron’s wave around an atom’s nucleus. The simplest
wave that can fit around is a sphere; the wave wraps smoothly all the way around;
the next simplest wave has one peak, then two and so on. Each of these types of
waves corresponds to an electron in a definite energy state. The more peaks is in an
electron’s wave, the faster it wiggles and more energy it has.
When an electron jumps from a higher energy state to a lower energy state it emits
a photon whose energy equals to the energy difference of two states. Similarly, an
atom can absorb a photon and jump from one energy level to a higher energy level.
Any atoms refuses to absorb a photon whose energy is not exactly the difference of
some energy levels.
Emitting or absorbing a photon takes some time.
Usually we take ground state (corresponding to the lowest energy level) as
representing the basis state |0 of a quantum bit and the next exciting state as
representing the another basis quantum bit state |1 .
A laser pulse can take an atom from the state |0 to |1 and vice verse.
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 29/1
ENERGY
In current cosmology, the primary actor is energy - the radiant energy in light, and
the mass energy in protons, neutrons, and electrons.
Energy is the ability to do work. Energy makes physical systems to do work.
Energy can take different forms - heat, work, electrical or mechanical energy - but it
is conserved , never lost. This is known as the first law of thermodynamics.
Since energy cannot increase and the universe started from nothing it seems to be
puzzling where energy came from. Explanation follows:
Quantum mechanics describes energy in terms of quantum fields - a kind of the
underlying fabric of the universe, whose weave makes up the elementary particles.
The energy we see around us, in the form of Earth, stars, light, heat, was drawn out
of the underlying quantum fields by the expansion of our universe.
As the universe expands, gravity (a force that pulls things together) sucks energy
out of quantum fields.
The energy in quantum fields is almost always positive, and its almost exactly
balanced by the negative energy of the gravitational attraction.
As the expansion proceeds, more and more positive energy becomes available, in the
form of matter and light.
Energy and information play complementary roles in the universe.
In a short summary: Energy makes physical systems to do work - information tells
them what to do.
The laws of thermodynamics guide the interplay between energy and information.
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 30/1
FREE ENERGY
Free energy is energy in a highly ordered form and it is associated with relatively low
amount of entropy.
The relatively small amount of information required to describe free energy makes it
available for use - that is why it is called free.
For example, energy in chemical bonds is free. (Every gram of glucose contains a
few kilo-calories of free energy.)
While a man runs, the free energy in his sugar is converted into motion by his
muscles; after finishing running we get always hot. The free energy in sugar has
been converted into the heat and work.
To convert energy in heat (which has lots of invisible (hidden) information (or
entropy)) back into the free energy in chemical bonds (with less information) is not
easy; one has to do something with that extra information.
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 31/1
ENTROPY I.
Thermodynamics is governed by two main laws.
The first law of thermodynamics can be seen as a statement about energy energy
is conserved (also when it is transformed from mechanical energy to heat) total
amount of energy never changes.
The second law of thermodynamics can be seen as a statement about information;
it says that entropy (which is a measure of information) tends to increase - the
amount of an un-useful energy, or of disorder, always increases.
In other words, the second law states that each physical system contains a certain
number of bits of information - both invisible information (entropy) and visible
information - and that the physical dynamics that process and transforms such
information never decreases that total number of bits.
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 32/1
ENTROPY II.
Two laws of thermodynamics guide the interplay between two main actors of
universe: energy and information.
It is this interplay between energy and information that makes universe to compute.
In 1948 Claude Shannon introduced mathematical theory of information and a
measure of such information - entropy.
It has been slowly realised that these two concepts of entropy are deeply related,
that they are two sides of a coin.
There are various ways how to see entropy.
Entropy is information required to specify the random motion of atoms and molecules.
Entropy is information contained in physical systems invisible to us.
Entropy is quantity specifying the amount of disorder or randomness in a system
bearing energy or information.
Example: to describe an 8 × 6 inches color photo with 1000 pixels requires 109
bits;
to describe all underlying atoms requires 1024
bits (of invisible information).
The entropy of the universe as the whole tends towards a maximum.
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 33/1
STORY of ENTROPY
Entropy was first defined in 1865 by R, Clausius as a mysterious thermodynamic
quantity that limits the power of steam engines.
Originally entropy and heat were seen as special features of matter.
Entropy was first seen as a measure of how much disorder or randomness is present
in any (hot) system.
At the end of 19th century Maxwell, Boltzmann (especially) and Gibbs realised that
entropy was a form of information - a measure of the number of bits of unavailable
information registered by atoms and molecules.
Another view: Heat is just the energy in the jiggling of atoms. To describe the
motion of atoms requires a lot of bits of information - entropy is then proportional
to the number of bits required to describe the way atoms are jiggling.
Consequence: the faster the atoms jiggle, more information is needed to describe
their jiggling and therefore more entropy they posses.
The physical quantity known as entropy came to be seen as a measure of
information registered by individual atoms that make up the matter.
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 34/1
HOW ORDER ARISED from CHAOS?
At the very beginning, the universe contained very little of information - the universe
was featureless and uniform.
One of the fundamental questions is how such structures as suns, planets, solar
systems and galaxies were (or could be) created.
Creation of the order from chaos is due to the randomized nature of quantum
mechanical laws.
In the process of creating such large structures gravity also created free energy.
Every galaxy, star and planet owes its mass and position to some quantum accidents
of the early universe (and its butterfly effects).
Chance and Randomness are crucial elements of Nature.
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 35/1
BLACK HOLES
A black hole is a place where gravity is so strong that the velocity required to escape
from it is greater than the speed of light.
A black hole has a gravitation field as planets or stars.
By Wheeler, black holes keep records of information they absorb.
A black hole can consume anything that exists and still be described in terms of how
much information it has digested.
In other words, the black hole converts all sorts of real things into information.
Black holes are systems that can be described using laws of thermodynamics.
An important open question: What is nature of information trapped in black holes?
A black hole has entropy that is proportional to the area of its horizon and measures
the amount of information trapped beyond her horizon.
Dozens of candidate black holes have been discovered.
Most of galaxies, including our own, seem to have an enormous black hole in the
centre - with a mass million times of that of the sun.
A black hole with the mass of Mount Everest would be no longer than a single
atomic nucleus, but it would glow with a temperature greater than the centre of a
star.
A black hole is actually a very simple object. Once formed, it is featureless. From
the outside one can measure only a few of its properties: mass, electric charge and
angular momentum.
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 36/1
BLACK HOLES PARADOX
It is known that black holes evaporate.
It is known that information that gets into black holes cannot get out.
All that means that information can disappear. However, quantum mechanics says
that information cannot be lost.
Quantum gravity theory therefore says that information can get lost - quantum
mechanics that it cannot. Both theories turned out to be excellent in describing the
universe or the microworld.
The above information paradox of black holes was a first example when concept of
information played the key role in the mainstream of physics.
Evaporation of black holes is slow. It would take a black hole of the mass of the Sun
about 1057
times the present age of universe to evaporate.
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 37/1
BASIC POINTS Of VIEW - A SUMMARY
The universe is made of bits.
Every molecule, atom and particle register bits of information.
Every interaction between those pieces of universe processes that information by
altering those bits.
Therefore universe computes and since it is governed by the laws of quantum
mechanics, it computes in intrinsically quantum fashion - its bits are qubits.
The history of universe is therefore, in effect, a huge and ongoing quantum
computation.
What universe computes? - Itself - its own behaviour!
As soon as universe began, it began computing. At first it produced simple patterns.
Later more complicated ones.
Life, human beings, language and ... all owe their existence to the intrinsic ability of
matter and energy to process information.
The computational capability of universe can also explain one of the great mysteries
of nature: how such complex systems as living creatures could arise from
fundamentally very simple physical laws.
The digital revolution, that is under way today, is merely the last in a long line of
information processing revolutions stretching back to the beginning of universe itself
- to the Big Bang.
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 38/1
EPOCH 2 - CREATION of LIFE and DNA - I.
Several billions years ago carbon-based compounds
became more and more intricate until complex
aggregation of molecules formed self-replicating
mechanisms and this way a life originated.
Step by step, biological systems evolved digital
mechanisms to store information describing large
systems/mechanisms of molecules and to process
information.
Living organisms started to poses genes, sequences of
atoms in molecules, such as DNA that encode genetic
information and also tools to pass this information to
their offsprings, sometimes in a mutated form, through
natural selection.
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 39/1
EPOCH 2 - CREATION of LIFE and DNA - II.
DNA molecule and its supporting machinery of codons
and ribosomes enabled keeping of records of the
evolutionary experiments of this epoch.
Genes and the mechanisms for copying and reproducing
genes are the key information processing technology of
life.
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 40/1
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is nuclei acid found in the nuclei of cells. It is the
principal constituent of chromosomes, the structures that contain encodings of the
genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living
organisms.
Each DNA molecule is a long, two-stranded chain made up of subunits, called
nucleotides, containing a sugar, a phosphate group, and one of the four nitrogenous
bases: adenine (A), guanine (G), thymine (T), cytosine (C).
In 1952, J. D. watson and F. H.Crick proposed that the strands , connected by
hydrogen bonds between the bases, were coiled in a double helix.
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 41/1
OBSERVATION of CARL SAGAN
Two billion years ago, our ancestors were microbes;
A half-billion years ago they were something like mice;
Ten millions years ago, they were arboreal-aps;
A million years ago they were proto-humans puzzling
out the taming of fire.
Our evolutionary ancestry is marked by mystery of change.
In our time, the pace is quickening.
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 42/1
LIFE AS AN INFORMATION PROCESSING PROCESS
Science’s understanding of life is based on the
Darwinian evolution by natural selection, and selection
is, in an essence, information processing process.
Virtually all forms of life, including humans, are
descendants from their ancestors, by the transmission
of DNA.
DNA information storage function alone is the reason
enough to regard life as being in the essence an
information processing process.
In a deep biological sense, computing is as much a part
of life as eating and breathing.
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 43/1
HOW HUMANS FIT into the COMPUTATIONAL UNIVERSE? - I.
The information-precessing capacity of universe, at the most fundamental level,
gives rise to all possible forms of information processing.
After the Big Bang, as different pieces of universe tried out all possible ways of
producing information, sooner or later, some of them, seeded by quantum accidents,
that is some pieces of universe, succeeded to develop various algorithms to
reproduce themsselves - such accidents led to the origin of life.
Life evolved by processing genetic information to learn new strategies for survival
and reproduction.
After trying billions of strategies, some living organism discovered sex - a technique
that much increases the rate at which new evolutionary strategies and algorithms
can be explored (because it speeds up the rate of genetic information processing).
After billions of years of sex - living creatures had evolved various tools of getting
and processing information - eyes, ears, brains and so on.
During the last 100 000 years humans developed language that allowed distributed
information processing, what in turned allowed cooperation, association.
It is the richness of our tools for mining, processing and communication of
information that brought human beings so far.
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 44/1
CELLS and INFORMATION PROCESSING
The cell is the smallest unit in the living organism that is capable of carrying on the
essential life processes of sustaining metabolism for producing energy and for
reproduction.
Cell’s do not need humans to perform computations. They are full of computational
tricks of their own.
Cells are actually tiny chemical calculators.
Compared to even the best of human computers, the living cell is an information
processor extraordinaire.
However, cells are much more than computers. They make proteins needed for all
life’s purposes.
Cells need to copy DNA’s genetic information for two reasons; one is to make
proteins, the other is to pass important life information to new generations.
The DNA in a cell contains enough information not only to make human (animal)
body, but also to operate it for lifetime.
Molecules within certain cells of living humans contain fruitful information about the
history of human species.
A cell’s computational skills allow simple life forms to respond to their environment
successfully - bacteria have no brain, yet they somehow figure out how to swim
toward food and away from poison.
Cells guide life not merely by exchange of energy among molecules - that is, simple
chemistry -but by the sophisticated processing of information.
By understanding cellular information processing, medical researchers can come upprof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 45/1
SEX AND INFORMATIO PROCESSING
Getting a new organism is a complicated process,
requiring the formation of sex cells by the process
called meiosis.
After a cell is divided by meiosis, each new cell contains
only half the normal supply of genes.
Meiosis is followed by fertilization - merging of male and
female sex cells to restore enough of genetic material.
In this process of meiosis and fertilisation, DNA from
two parents is cut up and recombined, giving the
offspring’s cells a set of DNA information that contains
many similarities while still differing from both parents.
To make kids is just a complicated information
processing process.
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 46/1
DNA AND INFORMATION PROCESSING
Genetic information is encoded along DNA strands using four kind of ”bases”
(molecular fragments that connect the two DNA strands). The basis are
known/denoted by their initial letterers: Adenine, Thymine, Guanine and Cytosine.
DNA strands stick together in a special way: A is always opposite to T and G to C.
When it is time for DNA to divide and reproduce, the two strands split and the
master enzyme comes along to build to each strand a new partner.
When Watson and Crick discovered DNA, in 1953, they immediately realized that
the secret of transmitting genetic information had been found.
A gram of dried-out DNA stores as much information as maybe a trillion CD-ROM
discs.
DNA origin is believed to be close to the origin of life itself.
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 47/1
POTENTIAL of DNA for INFORMATION PROCESSING
DNA in each cell contains 3 to 5 millions of base pairs;
It can be seen as 2m long and 2nm thick and with 750 MegaBytes;
In a human body we have 3 billions of cells, DNA as 5 × 109
km long and with 7.5
OctaBytes.
Nature uses DNA in certain ways, mainly using proteins.
However, there is no reason not to assume that we can try to use DNA/RNA in
different ways than nature and to build nano-devises including nano-computers.
Indeed,
DNA computing has been developed already for quite a while as a form of
computing that uses DNA, biochemistry and molecular biology to do computation.
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 48/1
GENES AND INFORMATION PROCESSING
Gene is an ultimate unit by which inheritable
characteristics are transmitted to succeeding
generations in all living organisms.
Genes are contained by, and arranged along the length
of the chromosome.
The gene is composed of DNA.
Each chromosome of each species has a definite
number and arrangement of genes, which govern both
the structure and metabolic functions of the cells and
thus of the entire organism.
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 49/1
BIOLOGY and INFORMATICS
Biology and informatics - life and information
processing - are related. I am confident that at their
interfaces great discoveries await those who seek them.
Leonard Adleman in ”Computing with DNA”
Biology had become the science how cells use
information contained in genes.
In a way, thanks to DNA and genetic code, information
processing superparadigm entered life sciences sooner
than computers brought it to the physical sciences.
prof. Jozef Gruska IV054 2315. Future of Informatics - Chapter 2 50/1
EPOCH 3 - BRAINS ARE COMING
DNA-guided evolution produces organisms that could detect information with their
own sensory organs as well as store and process this information in their own brains
and nervous systems.
These outcomes were made possible by second epoch mechanisms (DNA and
epigenetic information of proteins and RNA fragments that control gene
expressions), which (indirectly) created main third epoch information processing
mechanisms - brains and nervous systems of organisms.
The epoch started with evolution of organisms with ability to recognize patterns which
still accounts for the vast majority of activities in our brains.
This epoch first culminated with species with an ability to create abstract mental
models of the world they experienced and to contemplate the rational implications of
these models.
The epoch culminated with an evolution of humans with the ability to redesign the
world in our minds and to put these ideas into actions.
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BRAINS
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BRAINS
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MAIN PROBLEMS of SPECIES of the BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION
In early stage of biological evolution the main problem
and objective of its species was to survive - to find food
and to camouflage themselves from predators.
In the later stage, when humanoids appeared, the
objective evolved to the ability to out-think adversaries
and to manipulate environment accordingly.
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BRAIN AND INFORMATION PROCESSING
There are little doubts that brain performs sophisticated information processing and
that main progress in understanding the brain came recently from the research that
views the brain as an information processing system.
There is a lot of controversy whether brain is a computer in the usual (Turing
machine) sense - or it is just “a dynamical systems” where a lot of information
processing interactions go on.
von Neumann was perhaps the first to explore these issues in a scientific depth.
Computer and computer models are nowadays mail tools to get in depth into brain
information processing processes.
It seems getting clear that brain has to be seen as a computer with ever evolving
hardware and with special (no) distinction between hardware and software.
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COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE
Information precessing ideas clearly help scientists to understand how the brain’s
nerve cells conspire to create thoughts and behaviour.
Design of computational functional models of brain activities is currently seen as a
very important way to study brain behaviour and mind.
The main current idea is that an understanding of brains will result in an iterative
combination of bottom-up and top-down approach
The basis of the bottom-up approach is to scan of the brain biological components
and their activities and from that to derive their functionality.
The basis of the top-down approach is to design functional and predictive models of
brain elements and regions and through their simulation to determine properties of
biological elements that cannot be observed directly using available scanning
methods.
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EPOCH 4 - TECHNOLOGY REVOLUTION
Developments of brain, better and better rational and abstract thoughts as well as
the development of more and more easy to use hands and legs and sensory organs,
initiated development of human designed technology.
Technology evolution started with the design of very primitive tools and developed
subsequently to the design of automated mechanical machines.
This resulted to the development of sophisticated devises for sensoring, storing,
processing and communication technology capable to process sophisticated patterns
of information.
To compare the rate of progress of the biological evolution to that of technology
evolution, consider that the most advanced mammals have added about one cubic inch of
brain matter every hundred thousands years, whereas we are roughly doubling the
computational capacity of computers every 1-2 years.
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LOGARITHMIC PLOTTING of the DEVELOPMENT of the
BIOLOGICAL and TECHNOLOGICAL EVOLUTIONS I
If we place key milestones of both biological evolution and human technological
developments on a single graph plotting both the x-axis (number of years ago) and y-axis
(the paradigm shift time) on logarithmic scale , we find a reasonably straight line with
biological evolution leading directly to human-directed developments.
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LOGARITHMIC PLOTTING of the DEVELOPMENT of
BIOLOGICAL and NON-BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTIONS Ia
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LINEAR PLOTTING NEAR PLOTTING of the DEVELOPMENT
BIOLOGICAL and TECHNOLOGICAL EVOLUTIONS
The following figure shows the same data as the preceding figure, but with a linear scale
for time present. Exponential acceleration is more visible, but details are not and from
such a linear perspective most of the key events have just happened recently.
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OBSERVATIONS
The attributes that are growing exponentially in previous plots are order and
complexity.
The accelerations presented match our commonsense observations.
A billion years ago not much happened even the course of one million year.
A quarter-million years ago epochal events such as the evolution of our species
occurred in time frames of just one hundred thousand years.
Fifty thousands years ago not much happened even over one-thousand years period.
Recently in World Wide Web it took a decade from inception to mass adoption
(meaning that it was used by a quarter of population in advanced countries)
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WHAT is SINGULARITY?
The term singularity and refers to the state of mankind
after non-biological intelligence overcomes biological one.
Singularity is the future period during which the speed of
technological progress will be so rapid and its impact so
deep that human life will be irreversibly transformed.
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EPOCH 5 - MERGE of HUMAN INTELLIGENCE and
TECHNOLOGY
It is the epoch that begins with singularity stage of society.
Singularity will result from the merge of the vast amount of knowledge in our brains
with vastly greater capacity, speed and knowledge sharing ability of our technology.
This epoch will enable our human-machine civilization to transcend humans brains
limitations of a mere hundred trillion extremely slow connections.
Singularity will enable us to overcome many ages-old human problems and
vastly amplify human creativity.
Humans will be able to preserve and enhance biological intelligence that evolution
has bestowed on us and at the same time to overcome many of the profound
limitations of biological evolution.
However, one has to admit that Singularity may also amplify our destructive
inclinations - this has not been explored so far.
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EPOCH 6 - POST SINGULARITY DEVELOPMENTS - THE
UNIVERSE WAKES UP
Expectation of the developments in the aftermath of the Singularity are all on a very
speculative level.
It can be expected that intelligence, derived from its biological origin in human
brains and its technological origin in human ingenuity will start to saturate matter
and energy in its midst.
This will be achieved by reorganizing matter and energy to provide an optimal level
of computation to spread out from its origin on earth.
Whether our civilisation infuses the rest of the universe with its intelligence and
creativity quickly or slowly depends on its immutability.
In any case, we can expect that the ”dumb” matter and mechanisms of the universe
will be transformed into exquisitely subLine forms of intelligence, which will
constitute the six epoch in the evolution of patterns of information.
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APPENDIX
APPENDIX
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FUTURE INSTITUTE TECHNOLOGY INSTITUTES - I.
In December 2012 an initiative started at the University of Cambridge to design
”Center for the study of existential risks”.
Basic reason for establishment of such an instiute: ”At some point, this century or
next, we maybe well to facing one of the major shifts in human history - perhaps
even cosmic history - when intelligence escapes the constrains of biology. (When
this happens we will be no longer the smartest things around and will risk
being at the mercy of machines that are not malicious, but machines whose
interest don’t include us.) With so much at stake, we need to do a better job of
understanding the risks of potentially catastrophic technologies.” - How Price
Price compared the risk to the way humans have threatened the survivalof other
animals by spreading across the planet and using up natural resources that other
animals depend upon.
Co-founders of the institute: How Price, Bertrand Russel Professor of Philosophy,
Cambridge Martin Rees Emeritus professor of Cosmology & Astrophysics,
Cambridge, Jann Tallinn, co-founder of Skype.
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FUTURE INSTITUTE TECHNOLOGY INSTITUTES - II.
Another basic points: Developments in human
technologies may soon pose new, extinction-level
risks to our species as a whole. Such dangers
have been suggested from progress in AI, from
developments in biotechnology and
nanotechnology. The seriousness of these risks is
difficult to assess, but that in itself seems a cause
for concern, given how much is in the stake.
In Oxford ”Future of Humanity Institute” has been
established in 2005 to exlore long-term fate of human
civilisation.
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APPENDIX - I.
APPENDIX - I.
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DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is nuclei acid found in the nuclei of cells. It is the
principal constituent of chromosomes, the structures that contain encodings of the
genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living
organisms.
The amount of DNA is constant for all typical cells of any given species of plants or
animal.
Each DNA molecule is a long, two-stranded chain made up of subunits, called
nucleotides, containing a sugar, a phosphate group, and one of the four nitrogenous
bases: adenine (A), guanine (G), thymine (T), cytosine (C).
In 1952, J. D. watson and F. H.Crick proposed that the strands , connected by
hydrogen bonds between the bases, were coiled in a double helix.
Adeine bonds only with thymine [A- T or T-A], and guanine with cytosine [G-C or
C-G].
The complementarity of thsese bonds ensures that DNA can be replicated, i.e. the
identical copies can be made in order to transmit genetic information to the next
generation.
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PARADIGMS and SUPERPARADIGMS
PARADIGMS and SUPER-PARADIGMS
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BASIC CONCEPTS and OBSERVATIONS
The clock, steam engine and computer have all inspired metaphorical frameworks for
science that can be called super-paradigms.
A paradigm can be viewed as a framework of thought within which researchers in a
given field practice ”normal science”.
Each new paradigm leads to a different way of understanding of nature; offers new
insights to old things; as well as suggesting new avenues of investigation that lead to
new discoveries.
A superparadigm is a point of view about what’s ultimately fundamental in
determining what happens in the world.
Example: Newton’s superparadigm described the universe in terms of the motion
governed by force, the way the moving parts of a clockwork mechanism were driven
by the pull of weight attached to ropes.
The basic mechanistic view provided a convenient picture for understanding why
things happen and how things change.
The basic idea of force thus formed a foundation on which other science could be
built in the Newton spirit.
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MAIN MACHINE SUPER-PARADIGMS
Clock Dominant tool in the society in the medieval time.
Tool and metaphor for science leading to new science of Newtonian
mechanics.
Metaphor for scientific world view based on force.
Steam engine Dominant tool in the society during the first industrial revolution
Object of scientific study leading to new science of thermodynamics.
Metaphor for scientific world view based on energy.
Computer Dominant tool in the society in the information era.
Tool for science and object of scientific study leading to new science
of quantum information processing.
Metaphor for scientific world view based on information.
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CLOCK-DRIVEN SUPERPARADIGM
History of clocks is very old, but only after weight-driven mechanical clocks were
invented the clockwork metaphor of universe started to catch on.
Clocks were hot commodities already around 1320; around that time communal
clocks began to appear in most of towns of any significant size.
Soon some of them started to depict movements of sun, moon and some of planets for
example in the cathedral in Strasbourg in 1354.
Nicole Oresme was first, in 14th century, who explicitly formulated a clock-like vision
of universe.
In his famous Principia of 1687 Newton transformed the metaphor of clockwork into
something more tangible - called force.
Newton’s force prevailed as the central concept of physics for a century and a half.
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STEAM ENGINE DRIVEN SUPER-PARADIGM
The steam engine story started in 1698 when Thomas Savery in Britain patented a
steam device for pumping water out of coal mines.
A key improvement was done by James Watt in 1765 and soon Watt-style steam
engines became a driving force of the industrial Britain.
For a long time there was a very little scientific understanding of steam engines.
This has changed in 1824 when Sadi Carnot formulated physical principles
underlying the workings of steam engine and in doing so he identify general
principles that constrained operations of any heat engine.
Carnat’s work gave rise to thermodynamics and its laws and thermodynamics
description of nature led to establishment a new central concept of science - energy.
Carnat’s work gave rise to thermodynamics and its laws and thermodynamics
description of nature led to establishment a new central concept of science - energy.
The ideas that temperature is a measure of energy in random motion and entropy is
a measure of information underlie what is called statistical formulation of
thermodynamics.
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COMPUTERS DRIVEN SUPER-PARADIGM
Pascal-Leibniz calculators.
Babbage’s Difference engine and Analytical
Engine.
Turing machines
From Zuse, through Collosus to ENIAC.
From Benioff through Bennett to Feynman quantum
computer
From Deutsch through Simon to Shor quantum
computation.
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