I found this paper interesting, it discusses how the underlying architecture of biological systems and advanced technology (i.e. the internet) are very similar.

Doyle, J., and Csete, M. (2007) Rules of engagement. Nature, 446, 860.

A quote from this talk:

All life and advanced technologies rely on protocol-based architectures. The evolvability of microbes and IP-based networks illustrate how dramatic, novel, dynamic changes on all scales of time and space can also be coherent, responsive, functional and adaptive, despite implementations that are largely decentralized and asynchronous. New genes and pathways, laptops and applications, even whole networks, can plug-and-play, as long as they obey protocols. Biologists can even swap gene sequences over the Internet in a kind of synthetic HGT. A related aspect of sophisticated architectures is that actuator signals (e.g. from intermediate fluxes and concentrations in core metabolism to cardiopulmonary rates and renal concentrating effects) have extremely high variability in order to keep other critical signals (e.g. from key metabolic products to blood oxygenation and pH, to core body temperature,) tightly regulated despite fluctuating supplies and demands. Such natural physiological variability can be a source of confusion if homeostasis is misinterpreted as implying that all signals, including actuators, are held nearly constant.

More here

The take home message here is that by studying our own advanced technology, we actually gain insight into how life works, and also this might actually be an ancient feature of distant common ancestors that facilitated evolution.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 4th, 2007 at 10:14 pm and is filed under Intelligent Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. The trackback link is: http://telicthoughts.com/convergence-of-intelligent-engineering/trackback/