From: Damien Broderick (thespike@earthlink.net)
Date: Mon Dec 01 2003 - 15:35:48 MST
----- Original Message -----
From: "Perry E.Metzger" <perry@piermont.com>
Sent: Monday, December 01, 2003 3:53 PM
> The "chemical replicators" are mechanical. Peptide synthesis in
> ribosomes is mechanosynthetic....
> The problem, I think, is a continuing belief in vitalism, although I'm
> sure Smalley would stringently deny that.
My sense is that Smalley's response might be that each of these enzymatic
syntheses is a one-off, a specially designed (`designed') gadget that
functions in a specific co-evolved ambient. That might not readily
generalize to a universal assembler, or even to multi-purpose nanoscale
tools. Not vitalism: complexity and deep history.
Homoeoboxen might serve as a counter instance, of course.
Damien Broderick
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Jul 17 2013 - 04:00:43 MDT