Mind fucking blown

[P3nT4gR4m]

I've read about this shit for years but wait for the video sequences around 12:30. Actually seeing a visualisation of what's going on during replication and factory biological production is fucking stunning. RNA is no longer a squiggly diagram in a book!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It83JKAxejM

[whenhellfreezes]

I've read about this shit for years but wait for the video sequences around 12:30. Actually seeing a visualisation of what's going on during replication and factory biological production is fucking stunning. RNA is no longer a squiggly diagram in a book!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It83JKAxejM

I'm starting to get scared simply because I'm happy with how awesome the fucking stuff we have now is. Even just a smart phone really

[Cardinal Pizza Deliverance.]

That is amaze-balls. Did you guys get the zipper analogy in high school bio? Something unzips the DNA and then it's zipped up into two other zippers? This video clears that shit all up.

[P3nT4gR4m]

I realised when I was watching this that I had learned a lot of it in high school but something about seeing it simulated like that was kind of like the effect when a book you've read is turned into a movie. Like making it concrete in my head.

[Telarus]

Great link, thanks!

[The Wizard Joseph]

Watched a chunk on my lunch break. When I get a chance to finish it, and think a bit, I may have things to say. Neat graphic for the DNA replication.

[The Wizard Joseph]

Sat and watched the video through. What blows my mind is the essential logistics to the whole cellular function. A cell is like a dense megacity full of monotask worker drones and multi function fabricators. All of it works in perfect sync and the system adapts to changing circumstances on the fly. It takes no breaks and runs flat out at incredible speed until it crashes and other systems scoop up the pieces. All without a boss or work instructions other than what is already pre programmed in the DNA.
We just can't achieve anything equivalent to it on our scale. Imagine if your ribosomes got uppity, unionized, and started to call in sick when tired of your shit. But they don't. They're not conscious. They're just ribosomes. Thank God.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Cellular function is amazing. But don't forget that they don't just do what's programmed in the DNA in a straightforward linear way, they also do alternate functions that are turned on or off according to complex interactions with the environment that we don't really understand.
http://aeon.co/magazine/nature-and-cosmos/an-expert-roundtable-on-the-selfish-gene-and-evolution/

[Reginald Ret]

What Nigel said.
Also, in a very real way the complex interactions in the environment are also carriers for evolutionary relevant data.

[P3nT4gR4m]

What really fucks my head is that, in one respect, what's happening is pretty straightforward - there's a machine that processes base4 ticker tape code. Program is massive (over 3 gigs in the case of humans) and that's machine-code not high level scripting but, essentially, I can just about wrap my head around it. The weird bit for me is the fact that the code creates the computer that executes it.

Self replication doesn't make sense. It's like you're saying "Here's a disk, just stick it in the machine it will make when you run it and then click "okay" to continue" There's some real sneaky shit at work here  

[Reginald Ret]

What really fucks my head is that, in one respect, what's happening is pretty straightforward - there's a machine that processes base4 ticker tape code. Program is massive (over 3 gigs in the case of humans) and that's machine-code not high level scripting but, essentially, I can just about wrap my head around it. The weird bit for me is the fact that the code creates the computer that executes it.

Self replication doesn't make sense. It's like you're saying "Here's a disk, just stick it in the machine it will make when you run it and then click "okay" to continue" There's some real sneaky shit at work here  

It's all in the bootstrapping.
This computer was booted 4.5 billion years ago and rebooting is impossible.

[P3nT4gR4m]

What really fucks my head is that, in one respect, what's happening is pretty straightforward - there's a machine that processes base4 ticker tape code. Program is massive (over 3 gigs in the case of humans) and that's machine-code not high level scripting but, essentially, I can just about wrap my head around it. The weird bit for me is the fact that the code creates the computer that executes it.

Self replication doesn't make sense. It's like you're saying "Here's a disk, just stick it in the machine it will make when you run it and then click "okay" to continue" There's some real sneaky shit at work here  

It's all in the bootstrapping.
This computer was booted 4.5 billion years ago and rebooting is impossible.

Correction: Rebooting was impossible. Venter Institute have cracked that one. Natural selection is being phased out as we speak.

[Reginald Ret]

What really fucks my head is that, in one respect, what's happening is pretty straightforward - there's a machine that processes base4 ticker tape code. Program is massive (over 3 gigs in the case of humans) and that's machine-code not high level scripting but, essentially, I can just about wrap my head around it. The weird bit for me is the fact that the code creates the computer that executes it.

Self replication doesn't make sense. It's like you're saying "Here's a disk, just stick it in the machine it will make when you run it and then click "okay" to continue" There's some real sneaky shit at work here  

It's all in the bootstrapping.
This computer was booted 4.5 billion years ago and rebooting is impossible.

Correction: Rebooting was impossible. Venter Institute have cracked that one. Natural selection is being phased out as we speak.

Link?
Anyway, rebooting life would leave you with a completely different computer. That is not rebooting, that is more like formatting or extreme clean booting.

[P3nT4gR4m]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHIocNOHd7A

Not rebooting life itself. Synthesising it. A starting point for a new phase of evolution by intelligent design. Natural selection is over. We are driving it from this point forward.

The way I see it, right now, evolution is still crawling onward at evolution speed, whilst we get up to speed with the Dev Kit documentation. This might take decades, centuries or maybe even millennia (yeah, right) but I'm confident we'll crack it a long time before nature creates a new creature. Even in the interim we're using life's nano-robotics to build stuff we want, and defeat natural efforts to do stuff we don't want. Selection is on our terms now.

[The Wizard Joseph]

Cellular function is amazing. But don't forget that they don't just do what's programmed in the DNA in a straightforward linear way, they also do alternate functions that are turned on or off according to complex interactions with the environment that we don't really understand.
http://aeon.co/magazine/nature-and-cosmos/an-expert-roundtable-on-the-selfish-gene-and-evolution/

Was picking through the articles in the link earlier and a thought struck me. The intro talk given in the OP stated that in many ways the body may be seen as much as an ecosystem as a lifeform in itself. Perhaps there is a guidance of sorts going on in the interplay of these internal species. Our own cells taking cues from the other cells in the structure, like in nature seeing birds take flight and knowing there is a predator about or perhaps relying on some byproduct of the other species for cues or optimal function. Kinda mindblowing to consider yourself an ecosystem more intricate than a rainforest, and humbling to consider how easily that might get jacked up by one's thoughtless actions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHIocNOHd7A

Not rebooting life itself. Synthesising it. A starting point for a new phase of evolution by intelligent design. Natural selection is over. We are driving it from this point forward.

The way I see it, right now, evolution is still crawling onward at evolution speed, whilst we get up to speed with the Dev Kit documentation. This might take decades, centuries or maybe even millennia (yeah, right) but I'm confident we'll crack it a long time before nature creates a new creature. Even in the interim we're using life's nano-robotics to build stuff we want, and defeat natural efforts to do stuff we don't want. Selection is on our terms now.

This could be the coolest way to doom us all. Patented, copyrighted, synthetic lifeforms. That may take offence at their servitude one day. Gosh where have I heard a story like that before?