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Beyond Networks: The Evolution of Living Systems

Hypercycle

docs.google.com

While not technically alive, there's an evil genius to viruses that never ceases to amaze me. It's one reason I became a virologist. A recent Nature paper reveal a remarkable trick SARS-Cov-2 learned that makes it nastier than the first SARS. Both viruses…

Peter Kolchinsky x.com

Importantly, evolution is not about optimization in the abstract; it is about optimization relative to other genetic variants within and across species. While we are evolving, so too are our enemies (like the influenza virus) and our friends (including the microbiomes in our guts). To a large extent, evolution is about preparing for the unknown, be

Jessica C. Flack • Worlds Hidden in Plain Sight: The Evolving Idea of Complexity at the Santa Fe Institute, 1984–2019 (Compass)

Just learned that the vast majority of the Shannon information in a cell is likely contained is in the transmembrane ion gradient. Where was this *information* when I was being taught the central dogma, because this makes the central dogma look completely bogus & incomplete.

amelie_schreiber x.com

Although these measures are only in their nascent stages, they show us that quantifying biological knowledge—information that aids far-from-equilibrium survival—can someday be a tractable task.

Bobby Azarian • The Romance of Reality: How the Universe Organizes Itself to Create Life, Consciousness, and Cosmic Complexity

@SpencrGreenberg The Selfish Gene

Paul Graham x.com

Knowledge exists in inverse proportion to meaning. ~

Eugene Thacker • Infinite Resignation

The neo-Darwinian perspective, which still dominates the popular understanding of biology, isolates individual organisms or genes from the context of the living matrix that sustains them. Scarcity, competition and individual success are seen as the main drivers of evolution. This is an outdated perspective, based on outdated metaphors like Richard