Theoretical origin of life;England's physics theory (Introduction)

by David Turell , Thursday, July 27, 2017, 15:30 (2676 days ago) @ dhw

QUOTE: […] the true hallmark of biological systems: their information-processing capacity. From simple chemotaxis (the ability of bacteria to move toward nutrient concentrations or away from poisons) to human communication, life-forms take in and respond to information about their environment. (David’s bold)[/i]

DAVID’s comment : Life is more than physical chemistry. Note my bolds: Life requires information to begin. It must be capable of processing it, copying it and passing it to descendants.

dhw: Information is always present in physical chemistry and in everything else that you can think of, organic and inorganic. The point is not that “life requires information to begin” but that life requires an information-processing capacity (your bold and mine), and the true hallmark of all biological systems is the capacity for processing, copying, passing and using information, communicating, cooperating, decision-making etc., which some of us would call intelligence.

A process which automatically decodes the instructions in DNA gives the appearance of intelligence. I propose that original life was both given information and the ability to act upon it automatically.