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The Codes of Life pp 153–185Cite as

The Arithmetical Origin of the Genetic Code

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Part of the book series: Biosemiotics ((BSEM,volume 1))

Physics and chemistry are indifferent to the internal syntax of numerical language of arithmetic and, in particular, to the number system that this language employs. All they require from arithmetic is quantitative data. Absence of a privileged numerical system inherent to an object must therefore be a necessary condition of its natural origin. Recent research, however, has found an exception. That object is the universal genetic code. The genetic code turns out to be a syntactic structure of arithmetic, the result of unique summations that have been carried out by some primordial abacus at least three and half billion years ago. The decimal place-value numerical system with a zero conception was used for that arithmetic. It turned out that the zero sign governed the genetic code not only as an integral part of the decimal system, but also directly as an acting arithmetical symbol. Being non-material abstractions, all the zero, decimal syntax and unique summations can display an artificial nature of the genetic code. They refute traditional ideas about the stochastic origin of the genetic code. A new order in the genetic code hardly ever went through chemical evolution and, seemingly, originally appeared as pure information like arithmetic itself.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Applied Mathematics, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, 71 al-Farabi Avenue, 050038, Almaty, Kazakhstan

    Vladimir shCherbak

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  1. Vladimir shCherbak
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Ferrara, 44100, Ferrara, Italy

    Marcello Barbieri

  2. University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Jesper Hoffmeyer

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shCherbak, V. (2008). The Arithmetical Origin of the Genetic Code. In: Barbieri, M., Hoffmeyer, J. (eds) The Codes of Life. Biosemiotics, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6340-4_7

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