From cells as computation to cells as apps

Citation

Bracciali A, Cataldo E, Damiano L, Felicioli C, Marangoni R & Stano P (2016) From cells as computation to cells as apps. In: Gadducci F & Tavosanis M (eds.) History and Philosophy of Computing: Third International Conference, HaPoC 2015, Pisa, Italy, October 8-11, 2015, Revised Selected Papers. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, 487. Third International Conference on the History and Philosophy of Computing (HaPoC 2015), Pisa, Italy, 08.10.2015-11.10.2015. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, pp. 116-130. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47286-7_8

Abstract
We reflect on the computational aspects that are embedded in life at the molecular and cellular level, where life machinery can be understood as a massively distributed system whose macroscopic behaviour is an emerging property of the interaction of its components. Such a relatively new perspective, clearly pursued by systems biology, is contributing to the view that biology is, in several respects, a quantitative science. The recent developments in biotechnology and synthetic biology, noticeably, are pushing the computational interpretation of biology even further, envisaging the possibility of a programmable biology. Several in-silico, in-vitro and in-vivo results make such a possibility a very concrete one. The long-term implications of such an ”extended” idea of programmable living hardware, as well as the applications that we intend to develop on those ”computers”, pose fundamental questions

Keywords
Synthetic biology; Programmable biology; Living hardware