Why it matters: A great introduction on the nature of DNA, and the evolution of species. It was a fascinating insight to find out how digital the genetic system actually is. In essence, we are all survival machines programmed to propagate the digital database which did the programming.

#Things to consider

  1. Each generation is a filter, a sieve: good genes tend to fall through the sieve into the next generation; bad genes tend to end up in bodies that die young or without reproducing.
  2. There are now perhaps thirty million branches to the river of DNA, for that is an estimate of the number of species on earth.
  3. Our genetic system, which is the universal system of all life on the planet, is digital to the core.
  4. We—and that means all living things—are survival machines programmed to propagate the digital database that did the programming.
  5. The genetic code is not a binary code as in computers, nor an eight-level code as in some telephone systems, but a quaternary code, with four symbols. The machine code of the genes is uncannily computerlike.