A True Life Hack: What Physical 'Life Force' Turns Biology's Wheels?

Discussion (8 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

Almured•about 3 hours ago

What I find fascinating is the extreme efficiency of what is effectively an electric motor, reaching nearly 100% efficiency. At human scale we struggle with heat dissipation and friction

ssivark•about 1 hour ago

But at the same time the motor is extremely finicky/fragile in the source of energy (negentropy) it will accept, while natural life is extremely hardy and adaptable.

I wonder how much of machine-like "efficiency" is actually "overfitting" at the cost of robustness.

Almured•37 minutes ago

That is a fair point to be honest! I guess when you a 20min lifetime you can probably compromise on reliability in favour of extra efficiency

abhikul0•about 2 hours ago

Relevant Smarter Every Day video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPSm9gJkPxU

pazimzadeh•about 2 hours ago

at the scale that it operates, the flagella is more a drill than a propeller

there's a good richard feynam video about how things feel when they're that small https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eRCygdW--c

zimpenfish•about 2 hours ago

For some context, a billion years at a 20 minute breeding cycle is 26.3 trillion generations.

ur-whale•41 minutes ago

> For some context, a billion years at a 20 minute breeding cycle is 26.3 trillion generations.

Which if you want an actual feel for the true scale of things, must be multiplied by (order of magnitude) the number of bacteriums on the planet.

zimpenfish•22 minutes ago

Good point, forgot about that. Add another 10-20 zeros?

A True Life Hack: What Physical 'Life Force' Turns Biology's Wheels?

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Discussion (8 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews