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Dec. 14, 2005 I’v been accused by several people that either I don’t understand science or I have a very low I.Q. If my intelligence were as low as some people like to point out then an easy way to get rid of me would be to give me some gum and stand me on a railroad track. That being said, on with my discourse. The universe is composed of matter, energy and information. According to the big bang theory, the universe started off with energy and eventually cooled to the point that matter could exist. The laws that govern the workings of the universe is information. This is the most important rule: information is only useful by intelligent beings. Remember this one, it will appear later. The second ground rule is: with the universe in existence all physical laws that govern that existence are in place. The 1st law in essence states that energy can’t be created or destroyed, the universe has all the energy it will ever have and this equally applies to information. The universe isn’t creating new laws to govern its-self. Everything that is learnable is already out there regardless if it relates to physical, chemical, biological or quantum theory. New theories aren’t new laws but are only based on our understanding of the existing laws. The third ground rule is: the second law in essence is the law of entropy and this applies equally well to information. Information left to it self tends to get scrambled. So, supposedly the 2nd law only applies to closed systems. I give you the human body. We’re born, we grow and we age and eventually, we die. Why do we die? We constantly take in energy (some, like myself, more then others), our cells are constantly replicating to make new ones to replace old worn out cells. There is an error checking system in place to ensure that any mistakes are corrected. It would appear that unless we die of an accident or disease we should live forever. So, why does it seem like we are destined toward entropy or running out of energy? DNA/RNA are information rich systems and what you’re born with is all that you have. The system works perfectly well (in most cases) for a large portion of your life however, eventually, this wonderful system breaks down. The cells don’t utilize the energy as efficiently. Waste products (produced by oxidation) aren’t removed as efficiently and you end up with age spots. DNA/RNA which has worked so wonderfully well for 60 + years, replicating and synthesizing proteins, making sure that no errors are allowed, starts allowing errors to creep in. An example of this would be alzheimers, believed to be caused by the one form of a protein called apolipoprotein E. Everyone carries this protein which is normally used to transport cholesterol in the blood. At some point in some people’s life, something changes in either this protein or the body’s use of it and it becomes harmful. I can hear the screaming now, “that’s a stupid example.” Luckily, I have another and will put it delicately, so as not to offend. In the process of reproduction for human’s, the male of the species is constantly is generating fresh genetic material for his contribution to said offspring. This is being produced and compared to a fresh template that baring radiation, environmental or genetic mishap does the job in which it was intended. Billions of these little start up disks are produced in a males lifetime in the hopes that a few of them can be used to as a boot disk. The female of the species however, is born with what she’s got. She gets a few thousand (I believe) and they get stored for the same purpose as above. Once they’re produced however, they don’t get updated or rotated for freshness. According to research, the older a woman is when she gives birth, the greater the chances are for having a genetic mishap. The reason, according the same research, the data gets old. This same data that was absolutely fine when she was in her 20’s has degraded. The human body is an open system all the way down to the cellular level. Energy and matter enter and leave cells, the nucleus imports and exports material needed for replication. Living beings are subject to the same laws that govern the universe. There is a purpose to information and information systems. Information doesn’t exist in a vacuum nor does it exist for no apparent reason. Neither chemicals nor chemical reactions are information producing systems in and of themselves. Information doesn’t create itself but can only be created or understood by intelligence. Someone once told me that evolution doesn’t have a goal. If there is no goal then there is no purpose. ------------ Email Tracey Stevens: phoque62@hotmail.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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