**3. DNA is an information molecule**

The language of information now pervades molecular biology—genes are linear sequences of bases (like letters of an alphabet) that carry information (like words) to produce proteins (like sentences). For the process of going from DNA sequences to proteins, we use words like "transcription" and "translation," and of passing genetic "information" from one generation to another. It is rather uncanny that molecular biology can be understood by ignoring chemistry and treating the DNA as a computer program (with enough input data included) in stored memory residing in a computer (the cellular machinery). It is this aspect that bioinformatics exploits. It is analogous to viewing Euclidean geometry not in terms of drawings but in terms of algebra.

In a sense, in the DNA sequences in our cells, written using an alphabet of only four letters, lies hidden the story of who we are and where we come from. For all we know, it might even tell us where we might be going. Albert Lehninger wrote:

*… living organisms are composed of lifeless molecules … that conform to all the laws of chemistry but interact with each other in accordance with another set of principles—the molecular logic of the living state. [19]*

It is this "molecular logic of the living state" that is yet to be completely understood, and therein may lie our ability to understand emotion, cognition, and intelligence. So, in a deep sense, the DNA is the master molecule of life. A marvelous thing about cells is that they are so designed that for many purposes one can totally ignore their chemistry and think just about their logic. The fact that one can get away with this is one of the most elegant aspects of molecular biology. The algorithmic side of molecular biology is bioinformatics, the study of information flows in living matter. Bioinformatics is about the development and application of algorithms and methods to turn biological data into knowledge of biological systems. Of fundamental interest is the organization and control of genes in the DNA sequence, the identification of transcriptional units in the DNA, the prediction of protein structure from sequence, and the analysis of molecular function. If there is mathematical logic in living things, then one naturally seeks to determine the formal mathematical system that governs life, that is, how information in the DNA is stored and used by the rest of the cell's machinery to do the myriad of things that it does.

We already know that a DNA molecule—a genotype—is converted into a physical organism—a phenotype—by a very complex process, involving the manufacture of proteins, the replication of the DNA, the replication of cells, the gradual differentiation of cell types, and so on. This epigenetic process is guided by a set of enormously complex cycles of chemical reactions and feedback loops. By the time the full organism appears, there is no discernible similarity between the physical characteristics of the organism and its genotype. Yet molecular biologists attribute the physical structure of the organism to the information encoded in its DNA, and to that alone. This is because there is overwhelming experimental evidence that only DNA transmits hereditary properties. The genotype and the phenotype are isomorphic. However, this isomorphism is so complex that so far it has not been possible to divide the phenotype and genotype into parts, which can be mapped onto each other directly, unlike as, say, in the case of a music record and a record player where portions of a record's track can be easily mapped to specific musical notes [20]. One hopes that AI and QC together will enable us to find this complex mapping. It is all about information processing.

By information we mean the precise determination of sequence, either of bases in the nucleic acid or of amino acid residues in the protein. We gain knowledge of biological systems when we can interpret information in some "meaningful" way

**17**

example, the DNA of a species.

*Synthetic Biology, Artificial Intelligence, and Quantum Computing*

ingly tend to believe as Max Tegmark does about the Universe itself:

without it being easily refuted. That is, we make conjectures and put them through rigorous tests of refutations. Molecular biologists are becoming increasingly sure that "life is a partnership between genes and mathematics" [21]. Indeed, we increas-

*Our reality isn't just described by mathematics – it is mathematics … Not just aspects of it, but all of it, including you. [In other words,] our external physical* 

One can well imagine the enormous strides synthetic biology will make when researchers get a deeper understanding of the Book of Life, with AI software becoming their research assistant, and quantum computers executing all the

The time has come for synthetic biology, AI, and QC to join hands and form a purposeful, integrated discipline to further explore the secrets of life, create new life, and find harmonious ways by which *Homo sapiens* can speciate. The main responsibility will fall on the shoulders of the millennials. The technology triad (CRISPR, AI, and QC) share some important properties, the ability to create, share, process, and communicate information in digital form. This means they can be supported and integrated with the full power of mathematics and physics. As Richard Feynman notes:

*Mathematics is a language plus reasoning; it is like a language plus logic. Mathematics is a tool for reasoning. … [I]t is impossible to explain honestly the beauties of the laws of nature in a way that people can feel, without their having* 

Mathematics is the *lingua franca* of the physicists because a formal mathematical statement to be of any value is either true or false; it cannot be true to some and false to others. This is the reason why knowledge based on any axiomatic system, that is, a consistent system in which every valid statement or query has a "yes" or "no" answer, can be arithmetized (i.e., translated into arithmetical statements), encoded in a binary string, and processed in a digital computer. Mathematics is the language that binds men and machine together in a rational dialog. In short, axiomatic systems permit men and machines to mutually communicate without ambiguity or confusion. This is the foundation on which artificial intelligence (AI) rests. It is why Pierre Simon Marquis de Laplace did not even acknowledge God as the creator of the Universe in his mathematical magnum opus on celestial mechanics [24]. He famously told Napoleon Bonaparte, "I had no need of that hypothesis" [25].

Creating and advancing rational knowledge, *inter alia*, requires an ability to communicate thoughts concisely, precisely, and accurately apart from refining knowledge by trial and error, that is, by making our conjectures fitter and fitter for survival. Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897–1941) said, "Language shapes the way we think, and determines what we can think about." And Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) said, "The limits of my language mean the limits of my world." Mathematics provides fewer limitations than any other language known to *Homo sapiens*. The power of mathematics lies in its ability to extract unity from diversity by abstraction, that is, by eliminating unnecessary context; it helps in discovering group properties (abstract or otherwise) common to all members of the group, for

*some deep understanding of mathematics. [23]*

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.83434*

*reality is a mathematical structure. [22]*

computing required by the AI software.

**4. The technology triad**

without it being easily refuted. That is, we make conjectures and put them through rigorous tests of refutations. Molecular biologists are becoming increasingly sure that "life is a partnership between genes and mathematics" [21]. Indeed, we increasingly tend to believe as Max Tegmark does about the Universe itself:

*Our reality isn't just described by mathematics – it is mathematics … Not just aspects of it, but all of it, including you. [In other words,] our external physical reality is a mathematical structure. [22]*

One can well imagine the enormous strides synthetic biology will make when researchers get a deeper understanding of the Book of Life, with AI software becoming their research assistant, and quantum computers executing all the computing required by the AI software.
