From: gts (gts@optexinc.com)
Date: Fri Oct 11 2002 - 09:45:11 MDT
Rafal Smigrodzki also wrote:
> Anything that doesn't directly chemically or physically
> depend on interaction with the DNA (=everything that
> matters), can and will be emulated by information structures
> replicating proteins, membranes, ion channels, gradients of ion
> concentrations, electrical currents, etc. No genes needed.
I should have addressed the above in my last message. In the example of
seasonal affective disorder from my last message, the structures in the
neurons will be different in the summer than in the winter. This is to
say that the types and amounts and qualities of the replicating
proteins, and/or membranes, and/or ion channels, and/or gradients, etc,
will be different in summer than in the winter. The most likely
differences, which you did not include above, will be differences in the
quantities or locations or sensitivities of the 5HT2A serotonin
receptor, as it is this receptor that is coded by the gene that was
found to be highly correlated with seasonal affective disorder. Also due
to feedback, differences in the activities of receptors correlate to
differences in the quantity of their associated neurotransmitters (in
this case serotonin) present and active in the synapses at any given
time. The quantities and activities of serotonin will thus also be
different in the summer than in the winter.
We cannot take a snapshot of the relevant neurons sans their DNA in the
summer and expect that snapshot to contain all the exact structures
mentioned above and expect neuron to act true to personality in the
winter. We must take a snapshot of the relevant genetic material also,
or in some way encode their instructions, because those genetic
instructions contain the rules for their expression in the winter, rules
which will change those neural structures in the winter.
-gts
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