Computing vs. Genetics - Advancing Artificial Intelligence Through Biological Process Applications - page 177

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kelldesgyrureiotpleghkdssseruieormdkfjhjkdddd-
goghfjdsenbvcxxwqsd ...

from 1 to 23 in the conventional order attributed
to them by biologists. The genes of the first pair
are the longest, whereas those of the twenty-first
and twenty-second are the shortest. These are, as
mentioned above, the chromosomes termed “au-
tosomes”, i.e. non sexual, from the Greek soma ,
meaning body. The twenty-third pair is the sex
chromosomes X and Y.
So, in the first chapter, a chromosome of x
million bases would take up x pages at a rate of
a million characters per page, in the second, y ...,
and in the twenty-first, z . “Beaconing” and map-
ping the genome is equivalent to paginating the
dictionary; ordering the pages from 1, 2, 3, ... to
three thousand, in 23 chapters, yet without filling
the pages in. At this stage, we still do not know
what there is on each of the pages, except for a
thousand words, set out here and there. Having
done the pagination or, if you prefer, map-making,
the experts will be able to start on the systematic
sequencing of the genes, i.e., fill the pages with
words still without explanation.
Then, in a few years time, when we have the
sequence of the whole human genome, we will
see that page 1 of chapter 1 contains the words,
or their genomic equivalent, not in alphabetical
order (a, aal, aam, Aaronic, ..., ab, aba, abaca),
but arranged as stipulated by nature through the
chromosomes (e.g., grace, disgrace, graceless,
followed by a word, like “everyday”, which bears
no resemblance to its foregoer, then gracecup,
graced, followed by an “incongruous” plum and
division and, then, disgraceful, aggrace, begrace,
etc.). Looking at these words more carefully, we
find that many are composed of the letters “grace”
and we wonder what this common factor means.
Further on, we find that the common factor “gen”
appears in genetic and also, in another place in
another chapter, in genesis, genius, ingenious,
genial, etc. All the “grace” and all the “gen” can
then be entered into a computer to discover how
often they appear and fully examine the sequences
in which they are accommodated. The whole
thing can then be reclassified taking note of the

Biologists are now beginning to distinguish the
characteristic sequences that initiate and terminate
the words of the genome and can better identify
genes from what are not genes. Therefore, with a
bit of training, geneticists will manage to pick out,
from the above mess, the following sentence:

Quitar codicia no añadir dinero hace a los hom-
bres ricos Casimiro

But, even after identifying the words of the
poem, they would still be a long way away from
imagining what Casimiro, to whom the poem is
addressed, was like.
Returning to the analogy with the human
language, the task facing those who are sequenc-
ing the genome is to make an inventory of the
thousands of words of the biological dictionary of
humanity. Only the inventory. The explanation of
the words will come afterwards. To give an idea
of the endeavour, this dictionary, at a rate of thirty
genes and approximately a million characters per
page, will have three thousand pages, given that
the genome has three thousand million bases.
The equivalent, in pages and weight, of the two-
volume Diccionario de la Real Academia de la
Lengua Española.
But, unlike usual dictionaries, the words will be
arranged not in alphabetical but in chromosomal
order. Instead of being grouped in the respective
sections A to Z, the words of the human genomic
dictionary would be arranged in 23 chapters, one
for each pair of chromosomes duly numbered