Genosimulation (A Teen & Young Adult Science Fiction): A Young Adult Science Fiction Thriller by L.L. Fine Read Free Book Online Page B

simulator?
    Mitochondria: Kind of. With simulations good enough and
close enough to reality, you can get pretty far. You know that a large amount
of nuclear tests are taking place today only as simulations?
    Cruel Ruler: Explain
    Mitochondria: Today we know the atomic structure quite well,
and the behavior of all kinds of materials under extreme conditions. So instead
of blasting off a bomb, feed the data to the computer, and then run the
software. The computer can give you very accurate observations of what will
happen in the moment of the explosion.
    Cruel Ruler: Temperature, destruction radius, and such?
    Mitochondria: Much more. A computer powerful enough will
allow you to track - at the level of a millionth of a second - everything that
happens in the process of explosion, and movements of each particle separately.
    Cruel Ruler: Sounds impressive.
    Mitochondria: Very impressive. Also spares the world real
explosions.
    Cruel Ruler: But it requires a supercomputer, right? Cray
something?
    Mitochondria: You have some good knowledge. Most computers
in the world which deal with real simulations are built by Cray. Israel has
only two such computers, but they are under American supervision and can't be
used for whatever we want.
    Cruel Ruler: Explain, explain.
    Mitochondria: These computers are classified by the US
military as weapons at the level of an atom bomb because of their ability to
perform such complex simulations. Cray aren’t allowed to sell them to anyone,
and when they are they place strict military supervision on them.
    Mitochondria: Anyway, the computers in Israel are too weak
to do the kind of calculations we want.
    Cruel Ruler: Which are simulations of the genome?
    Mitochondria: Exactly.
    Cruel Ruler: So how do you do it?
    Cruel Ruler: Wait a minute.
    Cruel Ruler: What minute? You’re going away from the subject
again. What is a genome simulation? You didn't say.
    Mitochondria: The genome is the program of the living being.
It's the genetic code. You understand?
    Cruel Ruler: Yes… and...?
    Mitochondria: It's far more complicated than anything a
normal computer can decode, because it is based on quadratic code and binary
code.
    Cruel Ruler: You've lost me there.
    Mitochondria: A normal computer has a binary code. Binary =
Double. It knows electrical states of either zero or one. For example, 10, is
the number two.
    Cruel Ruler: I know binary. What is quadratic?
    Mitochondria: The genome is not based on zero and one, but
four letters, ATCG, that generate different sequences. It is far more
complicated to calculate.
    Cruel Ruler: Well then? What is this simulation?
    Mitochondria: A little hard to explain to those who do not
know. Do you know how the human body is built? What determines the processes in
it?
    Cruel Ruler: God.
    Mitochondria: Sure. But how does he do it? Like this: any
combination of these four letters, let's call them a word. Your DNA - it's a
molecule consisting of three billion such words, each word part of a series of
code, sometimes more.
    Cruel Ruler: What does it mean?
    Mitochondria: Simple language: this is an insane program
with three billion base units in a language we do not really understand, each
word can be belong to several lines of code like this, and, oh yes - all the
entire software is the size of a few thousandths of a millimeter.
    Cruel Ruler: And that’s what you try to decipher?
    Mitochondria: Come on…it's just the beginning. Until now,
scientists in the world have succeeded, and only to map the genome. This means
knowing exactly where the location of each and every word on this scale.
Deciphering, this is still far above us. Meanwhile only a drop in the ocean was
deciphered. This, too, is quite amazing. But we’re still light years away from
full deciphering.
    Cruel Ruler: It’s getting hopeless. Simulation. Come on,
what is the simulation?!
    Mitochondria: You’re jumping ahead. Wait, listen,
understand. Do not piss me about now I'm on a roll.
    Cruel Ruler: Go