In the Beginning was Information

6.3 The Origin of Biological InformationWe find a unique coding system and a definite syntax in everygenome 16 . The coding system comprises four chemical symbolsfor the letters of the defined alphabet, and the syntax entails tripletsrepresenting certain amino acids. The genetic syntax system alsouses structural units like expressors, repressors, and operators, andthus extends far beyond these two aspects (4 symbols and tripletwords). It is not yet fully understood. It is known that the informationin a cell goes through a cyclic process (Figure 20), but thesemantics of this process is not (yet) understood in the case ofhuman beings. The locations of many functions of chromosomes orgenes are known, but we do not yet understand the genetic language.Because semantics is involved, it means that pragmatics alsohave to be fulfilled. The semantics are invariant, as can be seen inthe similarity (not identity!) of uni-ovular twins. If one carefullyconsiders living organisms in their entirety as well as in selecteddetail, the purposefulness is unmistakable. The apobetics aspect isthus obvious for anybody to see; this includes the observation thatinformation never originates by chance, but is always conceivedpurposefully.The substitutionary function of information is also satisfied (seeDefinition D5 in Chapter 5), since the triplets in the DNA moleculerepresent those amino acids that will be synthesised at a later stagefor incorporation into proteins (the amino acids themselves are notpresent). We can now establish an important theorem:Theorem 25: Biological information is not an exceptional kindof information, but it differs from other systems in that it has avery high storage density and that it obviously employs extremelyingenious concepts.In accordance with the theorems formulated in Chapters 3 to 5, inparticular the impossibility theorems at the end of Chapter 4, it isclear that the information present in living organisms requires an16 Genome (Greek génos = generation, kind, inheritance): the simple (haploid)complement of chromosomes of a cell; the totality of all the genes of a cell.97