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Yes Shane that is the basic take home message.
The fundamental idea is that order can come out of total disorder by feedback in the non linear physical system. To begin to understand is the example of sand grains that do not communicate and are basically identical at first order but not at the microscopic. Only wind and gravity form the Barchan sand dunes of self similar patterns. The sand waves on the seashore are another manifestation of this.
So we have a system that forms patterns in a totally mindless way!
The whole Universe has this property.
At the quantum mechanical level we do not have these mindless forces working as there can be no feedback from an as yet indeterminate state.
Quantum states are indeterminate until they are 'measured' or 'observed'.
Your DNA uses these same mindless forces to produce you from encoded data. It does not need a list of positions of all cells in three dimensions. The cells all arrange themselves according to simple rules encoded in the 'junk' DNA and DNA sequences called Homeoboxes.
Your DNA is about a metre long and it cannot possibly encode the position of every cell in your body using cartesian coordinates. You have a hundred billion brain cells and the total body is a little bit bigger than this.
My humble opinion is we are finally on the way to really understanding how everything works.
If I was a mythical creator I would make my creation self assembling so saving me from a lot of mindless work. I could then get on with the real job contemplating my own infinity or the fact I do not need to exist.
Bert
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