• Chemistry
  • Atoms organizing into molecules through chemical bonds (their joint quantum wavefunction), which then interact with other molecules
  • Systems tend to evolve to lower their joint energy (be more stable)
  • Randomness drives chemical interaction
    • Available sources of energy:
      • Chemical
      • Radioactive decay (heat)
      • Solar
  • Early chemistry: simple structures, able to absorb limited range of energy,
  • Evolution drives more complex molecules that can store energy to shift work in time and space, and eventually store and process information
  • Molecules are machines, able to perform mechanical and electrochemical work
  • Molecules can therefore transform state and compute
    • Molecules are “chemical computers” with properties we can describe as mechanical, quantum, thermodynamic, and electrical
• “RNA world”
  • Theorized early chemical state where basic molecules bootstrap computation (processing and storage)
    • RNA can build complex physical structures
      • Eventual evolution of protein-building machinery
      • Protein ability to catalyze reactions by physically manipulating molecules, offering alternative energy pathways
    • Molecular evolution of DNA as a long-term stable storage mechanism
• Single-cell organisms: Bacteria / Archaea
  • Have a membrane separating inside from outside, controlling reactions
  • Store genetic information in chromosomes
    • In the case of a bacteria, one or more circular chromosomes
  • Chemically perform information processing, storage, and signaling
  • Capable of complex function (ex. Hunting prey)
  • Some are mobile
  • Exchange genetic information (programming) through various paths
    • Sexual and asexual reproduction
    • Horizontal transfer (plasmids)
• Viruses
  • Information agents that hijack host cell’s machinery to copy their own information
  • Cannot replicate without a host
  • Consist of a capsid, with envelope proteins to merge with cell receptors, containing genetic information (RNA or DNA)
    • Use “reverse transcriptase” to replicate – sometimes from the host cell, sometimes carrying their own
    • Hijack cell protein-building machinery to build self-assembling copies of their own proteins
    • Generally kill the cell and emerge to attack others
  • Macrophages: viruses that attack bacteria
• Plants
  • Highly efficient converters of solar energy to stored chemical energy through specialized organelles
  • Respiration cycle has planet-scale effects (oxygen catastrophe)
  • Perform quantum computation at room temperature
• Eukaryotic (animal) cells
  • Have a nucleus and mitochondria
  • Mitochondria:
    • Produce energy (ATP)
    • Have their own genome (ring)
    • Thought to be captured bacteria
  • Nucleus:
    • More sophisticated information library, with protection and control mechanisms
  • Other specialized organelles perform specific functions
• Multi-cellular organisms
  • High complexity: Specialized organs perform specific function
  • Evolution of (electrochemical) central nervous system
    • But distributed (embodied) computation is significant
  • Co-hosting of other organisms (ex. Gut bacteria)

References:

1. New evidence that plants get their energy using quantum entanglement: https://gizmodo.com/new-evidence-that-plants-get-their-energy-using-quantum-1498695627 (simplified popular version of [2])
2. Non-classicality of the molecular vibrations assisting exciton energy transfer at room temperature, Nature Communications, Edward J. O’Reilly & Alexandra Olaya-Castro https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms4012
3. Quantum Biology: Photosynthesis - An Interview with Chris Fields https://www.scienceandnonduality.com/article/quantum-biology-photosynthesis
4. Bacterial use of quantum computation (“quantum walk”) https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/quantum-weirdness-used-by-plants-animals-1.912061