Proteins are Microbots

Robot: a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically.

I want to put things in perspective, regarding how amazing our body is on the microscopic level. Mostly everyone has heard of proteins, and many of us have also studied them to various degrees. But have we ever stopped and wondered exactly what these things are? The proteins in our bodies are coded by our genetic code. This genetic code creates proteins that perform functions in our body that are equivalent to factory-like machines on the microscopic scale.



The protein sequence that comes from the stored data in our DNA causes a protein chain to be made that assembles into a 3D structure that makes a shape that is capable of performing various biochemical functions. Above is shown a picture of ATP synthase, which acts like a microscopic motor where a turbine is spun to generate biochemical energy. The process to create these proteins is so precise it humbles even our best 3D printers. Each protein has its own specific code in the genome which codes for it to be created. There are even specific proteins that detect when to increase or decrease production of certain proteins when the body sees fit.

Many of you have likely seen this video before, but it demonstrates just how machine-like these proteins behave:



Proteins also form structural scaffolds to hold cells intact. Each cell in your body has a protein network that supports its structure as well as allowing avenues for transport vehicles to take resources to and from the various locations in the cell.

Proteins are also capable of sensing pretty much anything ever. Rhodopsin is a light-sensitive receptor protein that allows the cells in the retina of your eye to be able to detect light and send this information to your brain for further processing. There are also proteins on the outside of your cells that detect bad bacteria and pathogens to be targeted for destruction. Cilium are long protein structures that act as sensory structures on your cell walls:



This picture above was captured by a scanning electron microscope (SEM) which allows resolution at sizes of 5 micrometers, that's .000005 meters. Here are some diagrams that shows the blueprints to be able to create these sensory protein structures:




Cilia help light detection in the eyes, sound detection in the ears, and even scent detection in the nose. They're like microscopic sensory antennas

These sorts of immense engineering feats that are all coded for in our genome would humble even the greatest engineering firms. There was even a popular sci-fi book called 'Fantastic Voyage' in which a spaceship was miniaturized to be able to go and traverse through the body of a doctor's patient.



Making such microscopic robots to be able to traverse our blood and destroy bacterial and viral invaders still to this day seems impossible... Yet the proteins that are present in our body are capable of doing this exact sort of function already! Introducing Peptidoglycan recognition proteins (PGRP), which are proteins that are capable of literally shocking bacteria so they can no longer perform basic functions. This leads to the quick death of the bacteria.

These PGRP's are essentially microscopic hunter killer drones that go around zapping harmful bacteria to death. The exact mechanism for how they do this is unknown, but the main change they detected in the bacteria was its electrical gradient after PGRP attached itself. What is even more mind-boggling, is that these bacteria-killing proteins are so precisely tuned that they don't destroy proteins that belong to the body!

The immense complexity of function shows beyond reasonable doubt that proteins are designed microbots. Robots don't come to be by random chance, they must be created by an intelligent designer. So too with proteins, the organic microbots, and their respective genetic code, they required an Intelligent Designer.

originally posted by: cooperton
So too with proteins, the organic microbots, and their respective genetic code, they required an Intelligent Designer.

Excellent thought provoking thread
I'm a chemistry guy myself but either way, the only bit I struggle with is highlighted, and due to lack of any real supporting evidence of any creator entity being required, as opposed to random chance...which also suffers lack of evidence lol.
Very good thread though I enjoyed reading so cheers

a reply to: cooperton

Fascinating how they work.


I'll never get that song "Oxidative phosphorylation" out of my head.

originally posted by: Penhulahoop

originally posted by: cooperton
So too with proteins, the organic microbots, and their respective genetic code, they required an Intelligent Designer.

Excellent thought provoking thread

I'm a chemistry guy myself but either way, the only bit I struggle with is highlighted, and due to lack of any real supporting evidence of any creator entity being required, as opposed to random chance...which also suffers lack of evidence lol.
Very good thread though I enjoyed reading so cheers

I don't have a problem with it either way, depends how you define intelligence and creation.

Most resistance to that usage comes from implications of Theistic God, but on the flip side, I think one can attribute "intelligence" to what is "random chance" without implications of theism.

The blueprint for these mechanisms is part of our Universe, regardless, and that in itself can be seen as an intelligence with no need for theism implications.

The Universe has cookie cutter designs within it, so that these mechanisms may function regardless of how they were created, and that is thought provoking enough.

originally posted by: cooperton

The immense complexity of function shows beyond reasonable doubt that proteins are designed microbots. Robots don't come to be by random chance, they must be created by an intelligent designer. So too with proteins, the organic microbots, and their respective genetic code, they required an Intelligent Designer.

All indeed very complex and interesting, but then who 'designed' the 'intelligent designer' ?

a reply to: ancientlight

Without having any idea what sort of designer/creator we are considering it is an almost irrelevant question. Surely we must first deal with who or what designed the proteins?

I know about a lot of what is in the OP...but never actually looked at this the way you presented it. Your OP does actually express what is going on pretty well. Each cell is independent in our bodies but they work together as one and assembling these proteins and tying them together does sound like a production line.

Our brain is not the only place information and knowledge is stored in our bodies like most people think...it is stored everywhere. A lot of meds and certain food chemistries disrupt the communication between cells which can lead to some bad side effects which our immune system and brain along with our cells that make metabolites try to fix. Metabolic enzymes are usually protein based, and often have a metalic ion core in them.

originally posted by: and14263
a reply to: ancientlight

Without having any idea what sort of designer/creator we are considering it is an almost irrelevant question. Surely we must first deal with who or what designed the proteins?

Hmm no , that just makes no sense. Basically it would be an infinite supply of 'designers of designers' ?

a reply to: cooperton
Super fascinating post, makes me wonder though if we don't have the technology to replicate these "nanobots" artificialy.

Consider that manmade nanobots can have the ability to self replicate, how hard would it be to program it to take over human biology?

Maybe mRNA tech..... hacking humans?

originally posted by: Penhulahoop

Excellent thought provoking thread

I'm a chemistry guy myself but either way, the only bit I struggle with is highlighted, and due to lack of any real supporting evidence of any creator entity being required, as opposed to random chance...which also suffers lack of evidence lol.
Very good thread though I enjoyed reading so cheers

Thanks for the kind words!

Regarding the intelligent Designer, after realizing that as the foundation of logical things, I see it everywhere I look now. Everything is a beautifully designed masterpiece. Even a leaf:

originally posted by: ancientlight

All indeed very complex and interesting, but then who 'designed' the 'intelligent designer' ?

An extra-dimensional Being would not be limited to constraints of time. Without time constraints, it would be expected of a higher dimensional Being to never have had a beginning, because they exist eternally not limited by time. Because there is no beginning, there was never a need to be created or designed. This is the meaning of "Alpha-Omega". Because God always existed, God never needed to be created.

originally posted by: Archivalist

I don't have a problem with it either way, depends how you define intelligence and creation.

Most resistance to that usage comes from implications of Theistic God, but on the flip side, I think one can attribute "intelligence" to what is "random chance" without implications of theism.

The blueprint for these mechanisms is part of our Universe, regardless, and that in itself can be seen as an intelligence with no need for theism implications.

The Universe has cookie cutter designs within it, so that these mechanisms may function regardless of how they were created, and that is thought provoking enough.

Interesting, my view of God is similar what you describe as the Universe. If there is something that can assemble ordered structures despite the 2nd thermodynamic law, it shows there is a Grand Architect... not as though its some human floating in the sky, but a super-consciousness that inhabits dimensions currently beyond our comprehension. Christ tried to explain this and look what they did to Him.

a reply to: cooperton

Absolutely mind boggling.

I don't know if it's by design but it's definitely beyond our understanding.

Another marvel is of course the Fibonacci Sequence.



Amazing thread Cooperton, cheers.

originally posted by: Penhulahoop

originally posted by: cooperton
So too with proteins, the organic microbots, and their respective genetic code, they required an Intelligent Designer.

Excellent thought provoking thread

I'm a chemistry guy myself but either way, the only bit I struggle with is highlighted, and due to lack of any real supporting evidence of any creator entity being required, as opposed to random chance...which also suffers lack of evidence lol.
Very good thread though I enjoyed reading so cheers

So do you have any evidence for such complexity arising from randomness, or even for the very existence of randomness in physics and chemistry?

Because there is a lot of evidence of intelligence directing complexities and order, and of the natural order being, contrarily, highly entropic.

originally posted by: ancientlight

originally posted by: cooperton

The immense complexity of function shows beyond reasonable doubt that proteins are designed microbots. Robots don't come to be by random chance, they must be created by an intelligent designer. So too with proteins, the organic microbots, and their respective genetic code, they required an Intelligent Designer.

All indeed very complex and interesting, but then who 'designed' the 'intelligent designer' ?

In a theist construct, the atemporality of the designer gets around that issue.

For instance, some suggest that advanced aliens engineered things this way, but those aliens would also have to have been engineered, and so on in an eternal parade of alien creators who could not ever have had a starting point without an uncreated initial 'maker'.

However, an all powerful creator God, not limited by time, means that there needs to be no other progenitor because there could be self-causality.

The ability to observe and action things across the dimensions of time (yes, more than one) would also grant many other Godlike powers to such a being.

a reply to: cooperton

Fair enough explanation. I'm agnostic, so I'm open to possibilities we don't/can't understand.

a reply to: ancientlight

It could all be a simulation.

It certainly feels like it sometimes...

a reply to: cooperton

Great post!

This is clear evidence of intelligent design. The proteins in our body and that are in all organism aren't natural entropy states of it's parts. This is the hallmark of design.

We build houses, TV's and cars by bringing different parts together to carry out a specific function. This is because we have knowledge of the states these systems can be in. Without this knowledge of the system, you can't reduce uncertainty and increase information.

An open system can just reduce entropy locally and give you order. So you can get snowflakes or diamonds. The snowflakes will not be encoded with information to build a snowman and the diamonds will not be encoded with information to build a diamond watch.

A diamond watch isn't a natural entropy state of diamonds, it's a product of intelligent design. This is the same as our bodies. You can't take the 20 amino acids that are coded for in DNA, reduce them to their lowest entropy states and get the proteins that make up our bodies.

In fact, the amino acids have nothing to do with the nucleotide bases that are coded with information or the blueprints of life.

So are bodies are not the natural entropy states of it's parts just like a car isn't the natural entropy states of it's parts. It was created by intelligent design. We're made in the image and likeness of God so we create things and build civilizations on a smaller level.

We're the product of pure information encoded on the sequence of DNA by intelligence.

You also can look at the universe itself. There was a recent study where scientist couldn't find any evidence of naturalness. The high energies associated with these constants need to be canceled out. Therefore there should be a gang of particles along the way as the Cosmological Constant is fine tuned to 120 decimal places.

Here's a hypothetical. Say at high energy, the Cosmological Constant is between 100 to .0001. Because you're dealing with high energy, the range it can be in is small and it varies a lot.

The value of the cosmological constant looks something like this:

.000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000001

It's fine tuned to 120 decimal places. If this occurred naturally, you would need to cancel out these high energy states down to 120 decimal places. Therefore scientist predicted that you should see these particles but none were found. The article says:

The crisis became undeniable in 2016, when, despite a major upgrade, the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva still hadn’t conjured up any of the new elementary particles that theorists had been expecting for decades. The swarm of additional particles would have solved a major puzzle about an already known one, the famed Higgs boson. The hierarchy problem, as the puzzle is called, asks why the Higgs boson is so lightweight — a hundred million billion times less massive than the highest energy scales that exist in nature. The Higgs mass seems unnaturally dialed down relative to these higher energies, as if huge numbers in the underlying equation that determines its value all miraculously cancel out.

Some of those who remained set to work scrutinizing decades-old assumptions. They started thinking anew about the striking features of nature that seem unnaturally fine-tuned — both the Higgs boson’s small mass, and a seemingly unrelated case, one that concerns the unnaturally low energy of space itself. “The really fundamental problems are problems of naturalness,” Garcia Garcia said.

link

So just like we fine tune different parts then bring them together to make buildings or TV's, an Intelligent Designer would have knowledge of these constants and could fine tune them to 120 decimal places to get a desired result. The Designer would say fine tuning to 119 decimal places isn't enough and fine tuning to 121 decimal places would be too much but if it's fine tuned to 120 decimal places in concert with other constants, then a universe like ours can occur. This gives the universe enough time to form stable structures like planets and galaxies.

So Intelligent Design is clearly seen in evolution and the Creation of the universe. The Bible says:

Romans 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

I read a book called 'Darwin's Black Box' which promoted the concept of irreducible complexity and is obviously a challenge to evolution and it's small-steps theory. Some sections of the book I had to skip because the technical jargon was way above my level of comprehension and the author acknowledges this necessity in his introduction. But...basically...the book draws similar conclusions to the OP and I was fascinated by the diagrammatic representations of the chemical workings within our bodies.

"Just like machines" I had thought "Form and function, cogs and wheels".

The natural conclusion on my part was intelligent design. I struggle with the whole 'chicken and egg' line of reasoning when it comes to having a creator, much as many of us do. The long line of creators would stretch into infinity, so, I go down the route of information being binary and the code itself creates the designs within the system.

Are we a simulation, set in motion and allowed the freewill to develop along a myriad of paths and probabilities? Quite possibly and could we do the same...set the Sim, let it run and take it's course and how would those bits of information within the Sim develop and function...would they become self-aware?

It's a minefield of possibilities.

One thing I do believe is that the 'Creator' in the Old Testament bible, good old YHWH, is itself just a part of the incomprehensible, massive and eternal information universe. A God of metallurgists, I believe and how did it get so lucky as to become the overarching belief system in the present World.