Microorganisms, viruses, and computer programs encode all the information necessary to reproduce and spread themselves. Yet these mechanisms are amazingly similar in the animate world, in the world of viruses, and even in the world of technical systems. The book shows how great the parallels are between these various animate and inanimate replicating systems and what they are based on.
The excursion also leads into the fascinating world of genetics, to the question of what defines life and into the programming of software that multiplies itself independently. Finally, the question is derived whether and to what extent such self-replicating technical systems can become as dangerous as infectious viruses in triggering pandemics, such as the Corona pandemic in 2020.
Author(s): Rafael Ball
Publisher: Springer
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 158
City: Singapore
Contents
List of Figures
1: Introduction
2: Viruses, Microorganisms and Molecular Genetics
2.1 Origin and Development of Microorganisms
2.2 Basic Concepts of Molecular Genetics
2.2.1 Transcription and Translation
2.2.2 Replication
2.2.3 The Genetic Code: DNA and RNA
2.3 What Is Life? Definitions and Emergence
2.3.1 Definitions of Life
2.3.2 The Emergence of Life
2.4 Are Viruses Living Things? Viruses and the Early Genetics of the RNA World
2.4.1 The Genetics of Viruses
2.4.2 The Relation of Viruses to the Kingdom of Living Beings and Their Classification
2.4.3 Prions
3: Algorithms, Software and Artificial Intelligence
3.1 Software and Hardware
3.2 Algorithms and Computer Programs
3.3 Evolutionary Algorithms
3.4 Artificial Intelligence
4: Computer Viruses, Computer Worms, and the Self-Replication of Programs
4.1 “Brain” and the Computer Viruses
4.2 Computer Worms and Trojan Horses
4.3 On the Analogy Between Biologically Active Viruses and Computer Viruses
5: Information, Genetics, and the Evolution of Life
5.1 What Is Information? Data – Information – Knowledge
5.2 The Coding of Information in Biology and Technology
5.3 The Genetic Code and Information Theory
5.3.1 Epigenetics
5.3.2 Prions
5.4 Information Coding in Technology
5.5 The Meaning of Information with Viruses and Algorithms
6: The Great Continuum: The Convergence of Life and Technology
6.1 The Independence of the Systems
6.2 The Self-Replication of Artificial Intelligence
6.3 The Robots Are Coming: Technical Solutions for Autonomous Systems
7: The Coevolution of Life and Technology: Summary and Outlook
References
Index
