Life’s most distinguishing feature: meaningful information processing.

Abstract

The origin of life out of molecular disorder represents an extraordinary transition in the local fabric of the cosmos. The result can only be described by language that is imbued with echoes of purpose and agency. The «codescript» information stored in genes cannot be adequately understood in terms of Shannon’s syntactical measure. Biology requires a molecular-level explanation of the origin and maintenance of meaning, not just the emergence of functionally integrated nano-machinery. The highly ordered, autonomously maintained structure and functional organisation inside cells would be impossible without the precision afforded by information stored in read-only memory. Genetic information provides patterned boundary conditions that constrain the outcome of a biological system’s mechanically determined stochastic dynamics so that it is maintained in a continual state of self-construction. The evolution of genetic coding is the key to understanding how biological systems have reflexively embedded a representation of their own chemistry in DNA molecules. From the point of view of chemistry the genetic code is rule based, providing a map of very deep aspects of the physical phenomena an organism must control in order to exist. The map from genetic information onto functional molecular machinery that interprets genetic information reflects information onto its meaning and vice versa. It is the means whereby mechanical causation is commandeered and controlled by self-constructing semantic structures that unfold their own existence upon a material substrate.