
The Information Theory of Life - retupmoc01
https://www.quantamagazine.org/20151119-life-is-information-adami/
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theophrastus
This also recapitulates much of what is theorized in "The Selfish Gene"
(Richard Dawkins, 1976). So much so it's a bit surprising that the article
doesn't make a single reference to that work.

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Isamu
The most helpful paper seems to be this one: From Entropy to Information:
Biased Typewriters and the Origin of Life,
[http://arxiv.org/abs/1506.06988](http://arxiv.org/abs/1506.06988)

Refers to the Avida evolution simulator:
[https://github.com/devosoft/avida/wiki](https://github.com/devosoft/avida/wiki)

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Artistry121
I imagine the universe as a bunch of disparate pieces that can combine in
myriad ways.

Some of those ways create the conditions for other pieces to combine in a
similar way. Once those pieces exist they actually change the world around
them toward their own existence - sometimes in concert with other ways that
promote mutual survival. Life is a very powerful version of this that actually
converts other matter into itself.

This happens at all levels of the universe - from quarks to humans to stars.

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wanderingstan
This idea was first explored, I believe, by G.J. Chaitin in 1970 in his essay
'To a Mathematical Definition of "Life"'

[https://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~chaitin/sicact.pdf](https://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~chaitin/sicact.pdf)

Cool to see further work done on this.

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eli_gottlieb
Makes sense. Life is thermodynamics, and thermodynamics is statistical
physics, and statistical physics is information theory.

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sdfghjkl34567
Hi, I wanted to respond to your comment here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9719648](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9719648)

It's true that most of the left is sadly ignorant of such concepts, but the
reason my own praxis has developed so far beyond the typical left is because
I've been exposed to them.

Leftists won't phrase things in terms of memetics either, but that's what
they're actually optimizing for, and I thought HN would both understand the
term and appreciate the specificity, so I used it.

