ABSTRACT
There are a number of theoretical computers which provide formalizations of the intuitive notion of effective (or algorithmic) information processing. There is some resemblance between the overall process of self-reproduction in such classical systems—involving transcription of and construction from a description—and the biological processes of transcription and translation of DNA. The DNA is not a program or sequentially accessed control over the behavior of the cell. This is because the biological process of translation does not correspond to the construction process. The forfeiture of prescriptive control means that a certain amount of information processing can be eliminated. This is possible to the extent that the information processing is not inherently sequential, that is, in so far as it can be realized by processes which really run parallel to one another. Essentially the process of self-reproduction in such a system is a constrained minimization of free energy The main constraint—at least the most manipulable one—is the DNA description.
