THE DIGITAL MACHINE
There is enough evidence to show that man is a digital organic machine. As such, he may be measured, quantified, augmented and redesigned. There will be many in opposition and the road will be rocky, but reason will prevail.
The Opposition
Man is an arrogant creature, with exalted opinions of his own worth and value. He is thus blinded by his subjectivity and becomes angry at anyone who he perceives to be trying to tilt his pedestal.
Those who live by dogma, be they religious or Liberal/Socialist/Marxist, are unwilling to listen due to the security they feel in their beliefs. The religious call the student of genetics and evolution a horrible corrupter of society, leading mankind into cultural chaos. The academic elite, though not a believer in souls, nevertheless attributes to the "whole" man some sort of ethereal or spiritual quality far far above the probing of an insensitive and mechanical minded scientist, one who is more robot than man and therefore lacking in the understanding of the higher qualities of the "civilized" man.
By his nature, man is curious. Curiosity is an instinct and is present in all of the higher animals. It is a valuable instinct for survival. Knowledge of the environment, gathered before it is needed, adds accuracy to decision making when an emergency arises. Place any one of the higher animals in a new environment and it will immediately begin exploring. It will be cautious at first, but as knowledge expands so does confidence. A primary part of man's survival and ascendancy was the result of his curiosity. As he learned about his environment down through the ages, he turned the knowledge to his own benefit. As long as he is a man, man will remain curious. Although it may stop him from speaking out, no dogma will ever stop man from questioning the universe and every particle in it.
In the beginning this search for knowledge concerned food and safe havens from predators. Now it is space, the origin of the universe and the greatest challenge of all for man, man himself. He learned early on that often the success of any job depended on the tools available for that job. A dull axe makes gathering wood for the evening meal a more difficult task. Now man realizes that the limiting tool in his future is man himself. It has become necessary to define those limits.
What is man? This is the ultimate question, solve it and all of the needs of man will fall into place. Is he a divine creature, as the religious believe, created and protected by an ultimate being? Or is he an intelligent creature, as the LSM believes, capable of understanding all through the power of his mind? Or neither, as the 'moderate' believes. Or is he an instinctive animal with intelligence, as the study of his origin and development would indicate? Only the latter theory has factual basis.
There are many who seek the easy answer and will continue to do so. Others don't wish to know. Still others are afraid of the truth. For all of these, dogma, whether religious or socialist, provides their answer. To be sure, one or the other may be right, but dogma does not provide conclusive answers. Many men are doubters of both and suspect an entirely different set of answers, answers for questions some of which are still unknown. If the socialist is correct, why should he fear this study? It can only add evidence to his theories. The same for the religious. Both should welcome proof that their theories are correct. What they will not admit is that they are afraid of being proven wrong, and in that event their worlds will come crashing down around them.
The LSM bunch worship man in his carnal completeness and they see absolutely no need for any further understanding. Don't bother them with facts, their minds are made up. Like the religious, they are frightened, but their fear is that somehow someone will prove that man does need self-discipline, that there are rules he must follow, that most of his actions are instinctive and therefore will not respond to education, and that he should be punished if he does something wrong. Horrors! Their main fear is that they personally might need to conform to rules of civil decency and honor, in which they do not believe. That's why they fight so hard against value systems. Besides, to them anything learned in science isn't fit for the "whole" man, one with education in the literature, humanities and art. Conjecture, dogma and opinion are far more reasonable sources for knowledge to them.
Contrary to both of these stands, it appears that it is highly possible that man is definable, mentally and physically. Not yet, but soon. Why? Because man is an organic digital machine. Digital machinery may be analyzed, duplicated and modified. State of the art computation and communication equipment is digital. Man is becoming adept at the analysis, manufacture and design of digital equipment. Man becomes just another piece of equipment which needs analysis. Why? Because like any machine that was built with poor engineering and undisciplined construction, it needs repair or replacement. Both of these functions require a thorough prior understanding.
<< Back to Visions
DNA as a Digital Memory Device
The DNA within each cell of an organism contains the description of that entire organism. In that sense it is a memory device, one which is repeated in each cell. When a cell replicates, the DNA which is a part of that cell, also replicates.
As it is used in the cells of an organism, various patterns in the DNA provide instructions for the manufacturing of various proteins. The cell, in which the DNA giving the instructions resides, then produces that protein in the designated amounts. These proteins are used in the construction and repair of the body of the organism.
The genome of a given organism is therefore a particular set of knowledge (information, instructions, memory) in DNA format which describes in detail the physical and neural construction of the organism. This knowledge is then replicated throughout the body of the organism and is passed down to future generations of the organism. Since it can replicate, we say it is alive. DNA, therefore, is a living form of digital memory.
The human genome is about 3 billion base pairs in length. Each base pair has four possible conditions (A, G, C and T). There are two sets in each cell in the human body. This is equivalent to a computer hard disk with a capacity of 1.5 gigabytes in each cell, an enormous sub-microscopic ROM (read only memory), sufficient for two sets of the Encyclopedia Britannica. A thumb-sized organ specifically designed for knowledge recall should some day be possible, one which could contain all of the factual knowledge of the modern human. Formed in the brain at birth, it would be useful throughout the life of the human.
Questions about access are still unanswered. The organism body uses a system of area selection which activates the gene necessary for that particular location of the cell. It, in effect, reads out that portion of memory. In mapping genomes in the laboratory, it is necessary to determine the sequence of the DNA, exactly the same process needed for reading out a memory. Phospholipid membranes will transport electric charges making them a possibility for interrogation of an organic memory. These and many other avenues must be explored. Many different access systems will be needed since not only are these memory systems needed in the organism body, the same system would have industrial and commercial applications.
<< Previous Page Visions Next Page >>
|
|
