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Comment by cjk2 | Hacker News Reader

Seeds are more than just a program. They are more an embryo than a cell.

At least with plants we have a sufficient understanding of them that it's possible to propagate them from a single cell.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micropropagation

How far are we from instantiating the proper embryo then?

Quite far. Not only do you need to synthesize the proper genomic sequence (barely possible), but it needs to be packed into a valid chromosome structure with a valid epigenome.

Then that needs to be placed into a cell with valid RNAs, compatible chloroplasts and mitochondria, compatible proteins in a compatible configuration, etc.

Creating all of that de novo for a plant is well beyond current capabilities.

This is why when we clone e.g. a sheep, we transfer a nucleus from the cell of one individual into the cell of a different individual. It is much easier to mix and match pieces of different cells from the same species, than to create those pieces from raw materials.

Creating artificial seeds, from scratch, based on a stored DNA sequence? Pretty far - that's still SciFi at this point.

You're making a distinction without a difference there.

Seeds are much more than single cells. Embryos are much more than single cells.

The comparison is apt, and highlights a relevant difference.

Sure, but you don't need to bootstrap the whole system to be able to clone a plant and reproduce it. We already can clone plants using single cells, the next step would be to synthesize the cell from raw ingredients.

No, it's not. Seeds and even embryos are to DNA what a running piece of software (and especially, a Lisp/Smalltalk image) is to its source code: the latter stores only a fraction of the former.

And then consider that life is always built by other life, there is no bootstrapping from source code happening. Compare with Ken Thompson's "Reflections on Trusting Trust", and realize that the most important bits about life may not even be encoded in the DNA, but rather in the runtime state that's passed "out of band" from generation to generation.

> No, it's not. Seeds and even embryos are to DNA what a running piece of software (and especially, a Lisp/Smalltalk image) is to its source code: the latter stores only a fraction of the former.

Thank you for pointing out this similarity. While a piece of software is infinitely replicable - a simple git clone from GitHub would suffice -, the surrounding software ecosystem - compilers, interpreters, installers, linkers, operating systems - needs to be in place, as well as the hardware.

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