The Complexity of Biological Computers

Man can handle small amounts of information in conscious purposeful activities. However, the concept of information processing is not limited to these; it applies equally to unconscious nervous control, and even to chemical control and coordination of metabolism. On this level, the amounts of information computed are enormous; man processes about 3×1024 bits per day just in the course of producing biochemical tools. The general pattern for these computations is laid down in a blueprint containing 105 to 109 bits of nonredundant information. Such numbers are characteristic of living things in general. These informational feats are performed with high over-all reliability in spite of frequently low precision Of single acts. This is accomplished by prodigious degrees of redundancy.