Evolution Quote by Max Tegmark
““let’s instead define life very broadly, simply as a process that can retain its complexity and replicate. What’s replicated isn’t matter (made of atoms) but information (made of bits) specifying how the atoms are arranged. When a bacterium makes a copy of its DNA, no new atoms are created, but a new set of atoms are arranged in the same pattern as the original, thereby copying the information. In other words, we can think of life as a self-replicating information-processing system whose information (software) determines both its behavior and the blueprints for its hardware.””
About This Quote
Source Talk: Life as Information Processing, Max Tegmark, 2020
Life can be seen as a system that preserves and copies information, not just matter; this information guides both behavior and physical structure.
In simple terms: Life is information that replicates.
Key Takeaway
Focus on information over material.
Themes
information theory
biology
philosophy of mind
Mood
inquisitive
speculative
Type
theoretical
philosophical
When to use this quote
- genetics
- AI development
- software design
- education
- policy making
Key Concepts
self-replication
complex systems
Questions to Reflect On
- What defines life beyond information?
- Can machines become life?
A Different Perspective
Information alone may not capture emergent properties.
![“We now know that the secret of life lies not with the chemical ingredients as such, but with the logical structure and organisational arrangement of the molecules. … Like a supercomputer, life is an information processing system, … It is the [software] of the living cell that is the real mystery…” quote by Steve Kumar](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/33f/steve-kumar-32203_computers_we-now-know-that-the-secret-of-life-lies_2785108.jpg)
![“Perhaps no order of mammals presents us with so extraordinary a series of gradations as this [step by step, from humans to apes to monkeys to lemurs] - leading us insensibly from the crown and summit of the animal creation down to creatures, from which there is but a step, as it seems, to the…” quote by Thomas Huxley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/f0b/thomas-huxley-1183_animal_perhaps-no-order-of-mammals-presents-us_3051.jpg)
