Anyway, maybe we are binary--but we just have a 2-bit hardware
architecture ( that didn't quite come out sounding like a compliment !)
-Martin
>>> Tom Ditto <> 02/24/98 12:15pm >>>
One must ask why DNA uses a four level (modulo 4) encoding
scheme rather than the most robust method (binary). Did the
binary critters lose some kind of evolutionary race or did
such a method never exist in nature? If not, why not?
We know that as far as computers go, the saturation of the
transistor to true and false states (ground and power supply)
changed the reliability of computation by many, many orders
of magnitude over analog methods. There are no tertiary states.
To duplicate DNA encoding in electronics would require several
different types of transistor on the same IC. It's really
a lot more trouble than its worth until we hit the impending
speed limit for sequential calculations.
There is a tendency in the "New Age" to take instruction
from biological models for artificial systems, but take care.
Computers and people operate in very different ways, and to
make metaphoric comparisons into practical directives has
the effect of elevating poetic license to engineering practice.
This is one place where two cultures (science and art)
start to alienate each other. That could bring havoc to
our wonderful Renaissance period where computer science
is giving birth to a wealth of new forms of art and art archiving.