The
reason for my fascination with DNA as software is that its origin is an
anomaly without a credible explanation when viewed in the context of
modern technology.
Up until now, a humans only direct
experience of mind was through the human mind – and it was entirely
based on personal experience and indirectly through communication we
sometimes seem to share from our anecdotal mental experiences or those
of others.
But they are always of human mind.
There was no way to entertain the idea
of directly knowing a mind other than one’s own – the “one” with all of
the stories tied to one’s “identity.”
But now that we have been able to
discern the logic of DNA because of software- we can truly see it for
what it must be – the product of another intelligence.
There is only one programming language whose origin we do not know—and that is DNA.
How is DNA an “organic” programming language;
geneticist Juan Enriquez’s TED video informs us that DNA behaves in exactly the same way as our own “floppy disks” and computer software.
How Enriquez describes DNA
The A, C, T and G symbols represented in
in sequencing stand for chemicals, so the “calculations” or
“instructions” are biochemical and not in a silicon chip as with our
computers, but the principle is identical.
Now with the new CRISPR editing technology not only can we copy and paste genetic code – we can do search and replace.
It is interesting to note that before his death,
Michael Crichton
– the brilliant author of Jurassic Park and Westworld, cautioned
against the dangers of corporations patenting genes – or DNA code.
Imagine a company coming up with a DNA sequence to stop Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s but you would need to pay them royalties?
Like programs with which we are familiar
– Google, Apple, Microsoft and so on, any (encoded) program must have a
Mental basis or it could not be decoded.
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And in the case of DNA now with CRISPR – edited and reprogrammed.
To have a meaning that can be discerned it must be of mind. By definition a random pattern is meaningless. Any meaning is the obvious product of some mental intention.
By discovering the program of A, C, T
and G behind DNA we have exposed it as “mind created” stuff – all other
software with which we are familiar is intentional and based on a
logical system – and could not have arisen by aaccident.
In sequencing DNA we have encountered a
different mental product from our own, and we are now working with it –
but what about the implications?
First of all – for our very notion of
what mind represents – can we truly know that our own mental experience
is “personal” – and based on our own “identity” – or is it just as
likely that what we experience as mind is not tied to our “personal”
brains but is in fact ubiquitous or at a minimum a hidden aspect of
Nature itself?
In computer terms – a property or a
feature? And that our individual identities that are tied to bundles of
thoughts as memories are as many eastern traditions suggest – an
illusion?
So where could a scientific search for Mind go?
First it would acknowledge and recognize that DNA is an organic programming language.
This means that it must be intentional –
the product of an intelligence with a purpose. In the case of DNA that
is probably survival and evolution.
Here is an example of the power of our own computer programming and why it cannot be random.
Let’s say you have a PowerPoint slide
that you want to post as an image online. You have to save that slide
as a JPEG file because the programming language of the browser (HTML)
does not recognize a PowerPoint file, but only certain image files
including JPEG.
It is that specific and rule-driven. Laws must be obeyed.
Symbols must be arranged in a perfectly
logical sequence to convey the proper meaning – with DNA there can be
bugs which we call mutations or sometimes serious conditions including
cancer.
But the “meaning” of DNA can be decoded – and it is called sequencing.
I delve into the nuts and bolts of software and its meaning in more detail in
my recent book, “If DNA Is Software, Who Wrote the Code? – The Profound Significance of Life’s Programming Language.”
I was
moved to write the book and also speak on this topic because I came to
it with a background in philosophy but also learned a bit of programming
when I was a technology consultant. This convinced me that the mental
aspect of DNA’s origins was not a metaphor but real, and opened me up to
a different view of intelligence and consciousness beyond the
conditioned personal beliefs I had had previously.
Related CE Article:
Nobel Prize Winning Co-Discoverer of DNA Says Our Genes Were Brought Here By Extraterrestrials
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