[ExI] holy grail, batman! computer sim of a cell

[spike]

A couple days ago, I commented:

	From: spike [mailto:spike66 at att.net] 
	Subject: holy grail, batman! computer sim of a cell
	
	>...Hey, cool.  A local researcher claims he has a software
simulation of a cell...So this Mormon guy with the secretive sounding name
will see if he can convince us he has found the holy grail of computational
biology.  I sure hope he has done it.  If so, we can write sims that work on
other cells, and then can create networks to simulate multicelled beasts,
then, given enough computing power, perhaps provided by harnessing the idle
processor cycles that YOU are so egregiously WASTING right now, we can
eventually simulate evolution, which would sim us from protobonobos to
humans and right on past the present day, and lead eventually to a
singularity...spike




OK, so I went to the talk this evening.  I would summarize it this way: he
does not have the holy grail in hand, but he sees it.  There are still a few
dragons guarding the holy grail of mathematizing biology.  His work was
impressive enough that Stanford awarded him a PhD for it.

His sim takes about 20 hours of computer time to go from division to
division.  I suggested that he harness the power of unused idle computers by
volunteers, such as projects GIMPS, Folding at home and SETI at home.  The cell he
was studying is the smallest known living organism, mycoplasma genitalium.
I offered that although it could bring in great numbers of volunteers, there
may be a number of misunderstandings and possibly disappointments arising
from his project should he call it Genitalium at home.

The geeks appreciated the gag.

Aside: someone in the audience mentioned the singularity, and everyone there
seemed to know what he was talking about.  That was the first time I have
ever heard it mentioned in a meat world meeting that wasn't specifically the
transhumanist, sf, H+, extropian, singularitarian crowd.

spike