Mathematics, Biology and Metabiology

• If Darwin's theory of evolution is as fundamental, basic and general as most biologists think, then it must be possible to extract some basic mathematical ideas from it.
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• Hierarchical structure of living organisms = software levels of abstraction.
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• Each base in DNA = two bits of software.
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• Human = 3 × 10^9 bases = 6 × 10^9 bits of software.
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• I propose calling this new field metabiology: I hope that it will eventually develop into a field parallel to biology, dealing with the random evolution of artificial software (computer programs) rather than natural software (DNA), and simple enough that it is possible to prove rigorous theorems or formulate heuristic arguments at the same high level of precision that is common in theoretical physics.
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