ABSTRACT
Genes are just chunks of software that can run on any system: they use the same code and do the same jobs. Even after 530 million years of separation, people's computer can recognize a fly's software and vice versa. Indeed the computer analogy is quite a good one. Ridley's jaunt through the genetic alphabet is only the most recent example of the linguistic and textual metaphors applied to the operation of DNA and genes. In keeping with their etymology, genes seem to fulfill the promise of the long-sought single mechanism which would provide life's key since, like life, genes can instill order and reproduce themselves. In the realm of human reproduction and social systems, the law of the Father operates when the 'something' of the father's name comes to stand in for and seal the erstwhile unprovable relation between father and child.
