That is the clearly a manifestation of the "mystery factor". Replication as a mechanism is anomalous. Clearly, how anomalous is a matter of opinion. But I would say "highly anomalous" considering we don't see anything else other than life that seems to do it.
I think there are things that exist as abstract yet almost magical entities. These objects exist at all scales and by definition, are scalable. When I pull my hose across my lawn it does what are almost impossible things if I tried to do it myself intentionally. The ability of the hose to grab, bind, cinch, wedge and do a variety of useful, or not so useful things which are highly asymmetric, is uncanny.
These kinds of scalable structures (bubbles, hooks, knots, kinks, twists, screws, arrows, ratchets, etc.) are part of the system of software "form" infrastructure that exists, I believe abstractly. Life uses them - they appear to have some type of transcendence. But beyond these forms and life's tendency to find and exploit them, this behavior and life's ability to mine this treasure seems to happen in a very anomalous way. So, where does this library of hardware and software devices live before it is coded into DNA? |
