Please skip this page if you deplore computers
:)
It is amazing to think of ourselves as a chemical
reaction. We could think of ourselves is as
a great big molecule that is constantly changing
its state. Another thing that constantly changes
its state is a computer running a software program.
A computer with many million million million
millions of components would be so powerful
we would not be able to predict what it could
do. This is you. You (and all life) are an organic
computer. The hardware is the atoms. The software
is the chemical reactions between the atoms.
The special thing about the body is that it
is a computer made up of computers.
There is evidence to suggest that the DNA within
our cells may be performing quantum computations.
Don't worry too much about what a quantum computer
is if you don't know. Scientists are struggling
to build quantum computers but nature has probably
beaten us to it. Quantum computations might
explain why DNA has four bases instead of two.
The digital computers we use are binary: they
work with two states, 0 and 1. This is because
it is simpler (therefore cheaper) to make binary
components. The digital equivalent of DNA would
have two bases instead of four. But certain
quantum computations, like searching
a database, are as efficient with four bases
than two. This could explain why DNA has four
bases. It can be twice as short with little
loss to efficiency. The upshot is that your
body could contain at least as many quantum
computers as cells!
Our body contains other kinds of computers:
our immune systems are molecular computers designed
to destroy invading computers, such as viruses
and bacteria.
Then there is the
brain. The brain is
a computer within a computer (the body itself).
The brain's computations are carried out using
neural networks that are good at learning, generalising
and craving alcohol. An intriguing question
is, if our brains are computers, when will the
human brain equivalent of the Internet evolve?
Or will mankind create it? Imagine that! The
Internet changed computing. The Human-Internet,
networked brains, will change thinking.
You are a computer made out of computers. And
it is all done through chemical reactions. You
will never happen again so take good care of
your hardware (your body), software (your mind)
and wetware (your brain). But, remember, you
are programmed to die.
Add your comment to this page
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| From: |
Andrew, the trainer of cakes | Subject: | 2003-11-28 12:43:47 |
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| From: |
Raistath | Subject: | 2003-12-13 08:57:17 |
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| From: |
Kevin Gort | Subject: | 2004-02-08 23:06:14 |
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