The role of attractors becomes clear when studying living
systems. For example, amino acids are the building blocks of proteins, but are
not considered to be living forms. Proteins involved in the metabolism of cells
are composed of chains which include more than 90 amino acids. Simple
combinatory calculations show that more than 10600 (one followed by
600 zeros) permutations are required to combine amino acids by chance in a “spontaneous”
protein[1].
This number is greater than all the spontaneous combinations which are possible
in the entire history of the universe, since the Big Bang.
In
a work published in the American Scientist, Walter Elsasser[2]
shows that in the 13-15 billion years of our Universe no more than 10106
events took place (also considering the level of nanoseconds). Consequently,
any event requiring a combinatorial value greater than 10106 is
simply impossible in our Universe.
The
number 10600 is by far greater than all the possible combinations in
the history of our Universe. In other words, the possibility that only one
protein is formed by chance is null. Elsasser concludes that: “the notion of
chance in biology has no logical foundation ... its use to explain life is at
best metaphorical, but there is a danger that this metaphor may divert
attention in the wrong direction.”
In
other words, the possibility of random formation of just one protein is nil.
The Vital Needs Theory - page 67