ABSTRACT
Comparisons are so commonly made between the information processing systems of the living cell and the operations of digital computers that it seems worth trying to work out at least one comparison in detail. The party game provides a sufficient, and certainly an entertaining, vehicle for a minimal specification. The box in the large form represents the genetic apparatus of the E. coli cell. The French text contained in it corresponds to the genetic message inscribed in the DNA of the bacterial chromosome. The printed English text of the large form represents the somatic apparatus of the cell, concerned with implementing the genetic specifications of the cell, replicating the chromosomal DNA and supervising the mechanics of cell division. The consequence would be that the infecting phage particle, after integration into the ‘genetic box’ of the host, would not enjoy unrestrained replication, but would instead be replicated in an orderly way at each cell division as part of the bacterial chromosome.
