How Life Works

One of the fundamental messages of this book is that we cannot properly understand how life works through analogies or metaphorical comparison with any technology that humans have ever invented (so far). Such analogies may provide a foothold for our understanding, but in the end they will fall short, and will constrain and even mislead us if we don

The key realization is that there is no Evolution Fairy. There’s no outside force deciding which genes ought to be promoted. Whatever happens, happens because of the genes themselves.

What if instead a radio simply is not the right analogy—if biology doesn’t work like any engineered system we have ever created? What if its operational logic is fundamentally different? Then we will need something more than a better formal language. We will need a new way of thinking—albeit not one that need invoke any mysterious vital force. I be