Loops, Self-Reference, Substrates

Michael L. Johnson
Additional contact information
Michael L. Johnson: University of Kansas

Chapter 33 in Mind, Language, Machine, 1988, pp 215-221 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract Hofstadter’s interest in formal systems leads him into considering a variety of processes that involve the isomorphic translation of information, many of which, seen as he sees them, have important implications for the MLM metaphor. He observes, for instance, that the ‘isomorphism that mirrors TNT inside the abstract realm of natural numbers can be likened to the quasi-isomorphism that mirrors the real world inside our brains, by means of symbols’, where the symbols themselves ‘play quasi-isomorphic roles to the objects …’. Such a translation occurs also on the intracellular level, in protein production, after DNA dispatches messenger RNA from the nucleus: Now when a strand of mRNA, after its escape into the cytoplasm, encounters a ribosome, a very intricate and beautiful process called translation takes place…. Imagine the mRNA to be like a long piece of magnetic recording tape, and the ribosome to be like a tape recorder. As the tape passes through the playing head of the recorder, it is ‘read’ and converted into music, or other sounds. Thus magnetic markings are ‘translated’ into notes. Similarly, when a ‘tape’ of mRNA passes through the ‘playing head’ of a ribosome, the ‘notes’ which are produced are amino acids and the ‘pieces of music’ which they make up are proteins. This is what translation is all about… .

Keywords: Klein Bottle; Playing Head; Magnetic Recording Tape; Magnetic Marking; General Recursive Function (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1988
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-349-19404-9_33

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9781349194049

DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-19404-9_33

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().