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TABLE 1.
State
Threshold
Life Span
# 1
large
# 2
D E 2
3t*
# 3
D E 3
2t*
# 4
D E 4
1t*
TABLE 2.*
t 0
t 2
t 1
1
2
3
4
0
0
1
2
2
3
0
1
2
3
4
4
1
0
2
3
3
4
1
1
3
4
4
4
* The initial states are assumed to have been acquired within
one earlier interval. A more elaborate table is needed to indi-
cate “aged” states.
I shall now consider the general situation in which two events follow each
other at times t 1 and t 2 , each spaced approximately at intervals corre-
sponding to t*, and each event either supplying (1) or else not supplying
(0) the energy to lift the molecule into its next higher state.
Table 2 gives the result of these operations, indicating on the left whether
or not the events at times t 1 and t 2 carried the required energies, and giving
at the head of columns under t 0 the initial state of the molecule.
Clearly, for each of the different initial conditions this molecule “com-
putes according to the four possible input-configurations (00) (01) (10) (11)
a different set of outcomes, in other words, this computer changes its oper-
ations depending on its initial state which is, of course, nothing else but the
result of previous operations.
It is easy to see how this idea can be extended to accommodate an arbi-
trary number of sequential events t 1 ,t 2 ,t 3 ...t s and an arbitrary number of
molecular states 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,...m,and thus gives rise to the possibility to
interpret the various induced and spontaneous states of a macro-molecule
as those of a recursive function computer of considerable flexibility and lat-
itude of range.
However, there remains the question still open as to the external mech-
anisms that will induce these changes. To this end we have to evaluate
numerically the equation that was given earlier and which relates the
various quantities here involved, namely, the threshold energies DE, the
average life span of a state t, and the other two quantities, t 0 , an intrinsic
time constant, and the temperature T of the system. If we assume a con-
stant body temperature of 36.6°C, then T = 309.8° Kelvin and with the
known value of Boltzmann's constant there remain only the three variables
 
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