Skip to content

Comment on Radiation-hardened Quine (2014)parent

Comments

I actually like that.

But I may have been a bit unclear about my mapping of computer and biology terminology to this question.

I tend to think of a computer programs as being mathematical machines, and proteins as being molecular/chemical machines. Motor proteins "walking" along microtubules is the most vivid example of this.

I'm sort of torn between both worlds here, honestly. I like both perspectives. Viruses especially have a very quinish quality to them in that they're stripped down to just enough stuff to get a host cell to make more viruses.

I like the virus as quine analogy much better than generic DNA as a quine, personally. Seems much more meaningful.

AboutSource Built by g1lg1l

Hackerly is an independent reader for Hacker News, built on the public HN API. Not affiliated with Y Combinator.