Comments on: Everything should be code

By: Michael Nielsen » Info, bio, nano, or thermo? Turing’s revenge

Michael Nielsen » Info, bio, nano, or thermo? Turing’s revenge — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 20:47:18 +0000

[...] recent thinking about the idea that everything should be code convinces me that the people claiming that such shifts will occur are wrong, at least in the case [...]

By: Alexei

Alexei — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 04:13:09 +0000

hmm, in a way it’s already expressed as code, admittedly if it’s in english, a real mongrel of a code.

But say you turn this around – most computer codes seem designed to make certain tasks easy eg perl for text manipulation etc. How would you design a language for expressing biological ideas? i.e. what features would you build into the language itself so that the core principles are most efficient/elegantly expressed?

what would the language look like if we wanted quantum coherent interactions to be efficient to code (and what would measurements look like)?

Code refactoring would have a whole new depth

By: Pawel

Pawel — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 07:55:07 +0000

Bill, Michael, if you liked this essay, here’s another classic:

von Heijne G. A Day in the Life of Dr K. or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Lysozyme: a tragedy in six acts.

Link to pdf:
http://skirball.med.nyu.edu/research/sb/PSB03/Week6/VonHeijne.pdf

By: Michael Nielsen

Michael Nielsen — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 00:19:31 +0000

Thanks, Bill, that’s a terrific essay!

By: bill

bill — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 22:18:06 +0000

If you haven't already read it, I think you will like "Can a biologist fix a radio?". (Link goes to Pawel, from whom I first heard of the essay, one more click to the pdf itself.)

By: Everything is pseudocode

Everything is pseudocode — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:51:54 +0000

[...] says that everything should be code. If you accept the strong Church-Turing thesis and believe in the principles of digital physics, [...]