Characteristics preordained by geometry need not burden the genetic code. — Benoit Mandelbrot
page 162, The Geometry of Nature
Written long before it was discovered that the genetic code is much smaller than it was originally guessed to be. Obvious on the face of it.
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January 28, 2012 at 8:34 pm
Hypatia Callisto
a fundamental problem with all these “universe as a computer program” theories of mathematicians and physicists, is there is no “brain” in the universe to run such a program. THERE IS NOTHING TO PROCESS SYMBOLS – there is no “operating system”, no software, as it were. This is a function of minds, not cosmology.
January 28, 2012 at 8:37 pm
Hypatia Callisto
So yes, the implications from Mandelbrot’s interesting idea, is that geometry could function as a proto-code for replication. The universe simply cannot count!
January 28, 2012 at 8:44 pm
Hypatia Callisto
A better way to view a geometric code (of which DNA is another) is as already compiled bytecode. No mind. No symbols. No counting.
January 28, 2012 at 8:50 pm
Hypatia Callisto
Languages and equations belong to brains and software. Geometry belongs to the universe and the hardware.