[Fsf-friends] Sharing code, thoughts ...

[Nagarjuna G.]

On Sun, Jan 02, 2005 at 11:22:11PM +0530, Ramanraj K wrote:
>  Sharing code is a fundamental fact of life:
> 
> <quote>
> Bacteria  have developed  a second  avenue of  evolutionary creativity
> that is vastly more effective  than random mutation.  They freely pass
> hereditary traits from one to  another in a global exchange network of
> incredible power and efficiency.  The discovery of this global trading
> of genes, technically known as  DNA recombination, must rank as one of
> the  most   astonishing  discoveries  of   modern  biology.   Margulis
> describes it  vividly: `Horizontal genetic transfer  among bacteria is
> as if you  jumped into a pool  with brown eyes and came  out with blue
> eyes.'
> 

Code is an integral part of reality, or so I argued in my work in
philosophy.  On such recent work that tries to show the ontological
basis of this claim is in this paper:
http://www.hbcse.tifr.res.in/newweb/web/Data/Objects/cogsci1


Putting it very simply: there are three kinds of stuff in this world,
matter, energy and code.  The former two are coserved while the latter
is not.  The implication of this is that the former two are not
copyable while code is.  Our free software philosophy should be based
on this foundation.  

Apart from Margulis, you may find reading `Semantic Biology' by
Marcello Barbieri.  Apart from DNA and RNA there are various kinds of
codes that can be found operational in the evolution and also during the
embyogenesis (ontogeny) of a living being.  

Nagarjuna