The biological connection

Several years later, I became interested in evolutionary biology. I was amazed to find that the complete design of the human body, including the human brain, was described by a biological form of punched card – the human genome. The human genome may look very different, but, in essence it contains nothing other than binary information – equivalent to the holes and spaces on a punched card, albeit a punched card that contains three billion holes.

Three billion holes isn't that big a deal in the current world of computer technology. It's only seven hundred and fifty megabytes: not much more than the information carrying capacity of a CD-ROM (650 megabytes) and easily contained on the gigabyte hard disks of even the cheapest of today's home computer systems.

The thought then struck me that somewhere on the human genome there had to be a series of binary digits that described a neural arrangement in the brain that would help a human to selectively choose a partner to mate with. Assuming there are no metaphysical phenomena involved, the design specification of this neural mechanism must be totally describable using no more than a punched card (or bits in computer memory).

The thought intrigued me. I then set out to try to find the connection between a series of binaries and the complex set of emotions that cause people to be attracted to one another.