I sent the following email to Popular Science pitching not just an article, but a new way of looking at life, one evidently no one has suggested until now. The thought’s been on my mind for several years, and I firmly believe it – that DNA contains or is a form of artificial intelligence that helps adapt its host so it can endure.
What if DNA has an added component: a kind of intelligence that accepts sensory data and responds in a way consistent with its primary objective: the preservation of the host and therefore of the species? Imagine the effect on evolution.
As an 88-year-old writer, not a scientist, I propose in my 1000-word article, “Is DNA Smarter Than We Think” that DNA and RNA contain a biological algorithm similar to today’s artificial intelligence – call it DNA(I) – dedicated to preserving life. This would suggest DNA’s proto-intelligence sparked life’s rapid rise, from the first microbe (LUCA) to blue whales, faster than random mutations alone can explain.
Grounded in epigenetics (e.g., plants passing drought-resistant traits) and gene regulation (e.g., bacteria adapting to antibiotics), my article blends science with speculation: could DNA have formed with a survival instinct that drove it to build its first host (LUCA)?
Written for Popular Science’s curious readers, it invites them to ponder life’s origins and evolution through a fresh, outsider’s lens.
I’m a retired writer with no lab coat, but my lifelong curiosity drives this big idea. May I share the full article for your consideration? Thank you for your time!Sincerely,
William A. Davidson
