Wowbagger
The Infinitely Prolonged
Alright, everyone,
Let's see how many different examples of non-living self-replication systems we can list!! By "non-living", I mean things that are clearly not life forms (obviously, this excludes plants, animals, fungi, etc. And, more specifically, excludes their genes).
I know there is a fair share of gray-area in this matter: (Do viruses and bacteria count as life forms?) However, this thread is not intended to resolve such issues. (If it does, anyway, I guess that wouldn't hurt, though.)
The more obscure, the better. And, obviously the further degrees of separation from life forms, the better.
Memes and computer viruses would have been relatively good examples.
However, replication in a physical medium is preferred. (And, if it does not possess organic chemicals, what-so-ever, that would be even better!)
The replicator is not required to possess anything equivalent to genes. All it has to be is something that tends to copy itself, or its shape, or pattern, or whatever.
It could be man made or naturally occurring.
I am doing this, partly for my own fascination. And, partly in response to the end of this thread: http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=68904
Specifically, to expand on this post, in that thread: http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=2124238#post2124238
Some Examples, to start us off, though I doubt these are very good ones:
* Very simple replication of physical patterns in diamond crystals and soap bubbles.
* Nanotech molecular assemblers that assemble other assemblers like themselves
* "clanking replicators", which have yet to be invented, as far as I know. But, the idea is of a macro-sized machine capable of making copies of itself, (usually by being given pieces to work with), and those copies, of course, are turned on to make other copies of themselves.
* Other stuff that could be considered "close to being a living thing", depending on how you define such things: polypeptides, prions, viroids, etc.
* I also seem to recall some vague notion of another good example: It involved two chemicals, one used in photography, I think. And, I forget what the other was. But, if you placed an oddly shaped "impurity" into the mixture, it would start a chain reaction of whatever shape that impurity was, growing bigger, and breaking off into similar shaped bits. I do not remember the details, and I forget where I heard this from. But, if anyone does recognize what I am getting at, please contribute the source. (In the meantime, I will try to find it again, either on the Internet or in my rather large book collection. I have been too lazy to look it up, earlier.)
As a reminder, Richard Dawkins has a good chapter on this subject, early on, in his first book The Selfish Gene. I recommend reading the Second Edition or later, which has some important end notes added.
So, now let the listing begin!
I am sure there are some of you could could deliver much better examples than what I provided, so far!
Let's see how many different examples of non-living self-replication systems we can list!! By "non-living", I mean things that are clearly not life forms (obviously, this excludes plants, animals, fungi, etc. And, more specifically, excludes their genes).
I know there is a fair share of gray-area in this matter: (Do viruses and bacteria count as life forms?) However, this thread is not intended to resolve such issues. (If it does, anyway, I guess that wouldn't hurt, though.)
The more obscure, the better. And, obviously the further degrees of separation from life forms, the better.
Memes and computer viruses would have been relatively good examples.
However, replication in a physical medium is preferred. (And, if it does not possess organic chemicals, what-so-ever, that would be even better!)
The replicator is not required to possess anything equivalent to genes. All it has to be is something that tends to copy itself, or its shape, or pattern, or whatever.
It could be man made or naturally occurring.
I am doing this, partly for my own fascination. And, partly in response to the end of this thread: http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=68904
Specifically, to expand on this post, in that thread: http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=2124238#post2124238
Some Examples, to start us off, though I doubt these are very good ones:
* Very simple replication of physical patterns in diamond crystals and soap bubbles.
* Nanotech molecular assemblers that assemble other assemblers like themselves
* "clanking replicators", which have yet to be invented, as far as I know. But, the idea is of a macro-sized machine capable of making copies of itself, (usually by being given pieces to work with), and those copies, of course, are turned on to make other copies of themselves.
* Other stuff that could be considered "close to being a living thing", depending on how you define such things: polypeptides, prions, viroids, etc.
* I also seem to recall some vague notion of another good example: It involved two chemicals, one used in photography, I think. And, I forget what the other was. But, if you placed an oddly shaped "impurity" into the mixture, it would start a chain reaction of whatever shape that impurity was, growing bigger, and breaking off into similar shaped bits. I do not remember the details, and I forget where I heard this from. But, if anyone does recognize what I am getting at, please contribute the source. (In the meantime, I will try to find it again, either on the Internet or in my rather large book collection. I have been too lazy to look it up, earlier.)
As a reminder, Richard Dawkins has a good chapter on this subject, early on, in his first book The Selfish Gene. I recommend reading the Second Edition or later, which has some important end notes added.
So, now let the listing begin!
I am sure there are some of you could could deliver much better examples than what I provided, so far!
