Life's Ratchet
Life is an enduring mystery. Yet, science tells us that living beings are merely sophisticated structures of lifeless molecules. If this view is correct, where do the seemingly purposeful motions of cells and organisms originate? In Life’s Ratchet, physicist Peter M. Hoffmann locates the answer to this age-old question at the nanoscale. Below the calm, ordered exterior of a living organism lies microscopic chaos, or what Hoffmann calls the molecular storm — specialized molecules immersed in a whirlwind of colliding water molecules. Our cells are filled with molecular machines, which, like tiny ratchets, transform random motion into ordered activity, and create the “purpose” that is the hallmark of life. Tiny electrical motors turn electrical voltage into motion, nanoscale factories custom-build other molecular machines, and mechanical machines twist, untwist, separate and package strands of DNA. The cell is like a city — an unfathomable, complex collection of molecular workers working together to create something greater than themselves. Life, Hoffman argues, emerges from the random motions of atoms filtered through these sophisticated structures of our evolved machinery. We are agglomerations of interacting nanoscale machines more amazing than anything in science fiction.
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What Hacker News says
- The Nature of Order by Christopher Alexander (also The Timeless Way of Building)
Lila by Pirsig (If you've read ZMM and left Lila unread you've left a lot on the table)
The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutch
Antifragile by Taleb
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Yudkowski. Particularly Chapter 39.
The two Political Order and Political Decay books by Fukuyama
Life's Ratchet - Hoffman
- Life's Ratchet: How Molecular Machines Extract Order from Chaos by Peter M. Hoffmann
Just an amazing book giving what seems like the secret details how of the world works at a physical level.
"Thus, the nanoscale is truly special. Only at the nanoscale is the thermal energy of the right magnitude to allow the formation of complex molecular structures and assist the spontaneous transformation of different energy forms (mechanical, electrical, chemical) into one another. Moreover, the conjunction of energy scales allows for the self-assembly, adaptability, and spontaneous motion needed to make a living being. The nanoscale is the only scale at which machines can work completely autonomously. To jump into action, nanoscale machines just need a little push. And this push is provided by thermal energy of the molecular storm."
"At the nanoscale, nothing can escape the molecular storm. As Astumian and Hänggi point out, every molecular machine in our bodies is hit by a fast-moving water molecule about every 10−13 seconds. Each collision delivers on average 4.3 × 10−21 joules of energy (the energy is determined by the product of Boltzmann’s constant and body temperature measured in degree Kelvin). This translates into an average power input of more than 10−8 watts. Remember that a molecular machine generates only about 10−16 watts in power."
"Where do molecules obtain the needed activation energy? From the molecular storm! The impetus needed to make it across the transition state is provided by small, fast molecules (typically water molecules) fortuitously colliding with the reacting molecules to give them the right push. If lucky, the push causes the molecules to snap into their new shapes. Of course, not every colliding water molecule will have enough energy or hit the reacting molecules in the right way. Chemical reactions take time— we have to wait for the right push to come along, and the higher the activation energy needed, the more time it takes, as higher-energy collisions are much less frequent than low-energy collisions."
- I'm reading "Life's Ratchet: How Molecular Machines Extract Order from Chaos" by Peter M. Hoffmann, and it pretty thoroughly disavowed me of the notion that we're anywhere near understanding how the brain works, which doesn't bode well for one approach to the Singularity.
While the book isn't about AI per se, the complexity that it hints at in biological systems is (yet another) warning shot across the bow of my personal AI voyaging ship, telling me to avoid those waters (actually it's more like the Kraken from Pirates of the Caribbean).
I've never espoused AI technology that attempted to emulate the physical brain, believing it too complex an approach. But taking another brief peek into the black box of living systems scared the crap out of me! I'm glad I didn't pursue biochemistry as a field of study so many years ago. My mind would be full up by now with little to show for it.
