Biochemical processes at cell level are built to accommodate massive change

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References:

Bray, Wetware (2009), p. 130

There's an echo here of the reality distortion of computer simulations. The environment of a neural network— indeed any network designed by humans on a computer- is far simpler than anything a living cell experi-ences. Neural networks can cope with large amounts of information, supplied as written text, facial features, industrial processes, and so on. They can recognize restricted sets of patterns better than we can. But what they do is the tapping of a tin drum compared with the symphony orchestra of natural environments. Cells have to respond appropriately to conditions that change in myriad unpredictable ways. Consequently, the networks of biochemical reactions that control cellular events-everything from the copying of DNA and the synthesis of proteins to the generation of energy from food and the production of cellular building materials - are built to accommodate changes. Not the fixed stereotypical step-changes of a training set presented to a neural network, but an overwhelming deluge of plurality, a barrage at all scales and in all channels.