On the salient limitations of the methods of assembly theory and their classification of molecular biosignatures
We demonstrate that the assembly pathway method underlying assembly theory (AT) is an encoding scheme widely used by popular statistical compression algorithms. We show that in all cases (synthetic or natural) AT performs similarly to other simple coding schemes and underperforms compared to system-...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Research
2024
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| _version_ | 1811140463000813568 |
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| author | Uthamacumaran, A Abrahão, FS Kiani, NA Zenil, H |
| author_facet | Uthamacumaran, A Abrahão, FS Kiani, NA Zenil, H |
| author_sort | Uthamacumaran, A |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | We demonstrate that the assembly pathway method underlying assembly theory (AT) is an encoding scheme widely used by popular statistical compression algorithms. We show that in all cases (synthetic or natural) AT performs similarly to other simple coding schemes and underperforms compared to system-related indexes based upon algorithmic probability that take into account statistical repetitions but also the likelihood of other computable patterns. Our results imply that the assembly index does not offer substantial improvements over existing methods, including traditional statistical ones, and imply that the separation between living and non-living compounds following these methods has been reported before. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-25T04:22:22Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:9b5a8cb5-1bf4-4b72-ae04-f234d89cda9a |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-25T04:22:22Z |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| publisher | Nature Research |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:9b5a8cb5-1bf4-4b72-ae04-f234d89cda9a2024-08-16T20:03:38ZOn the salient limitations of the methods of assembly theory and their classification of molecular biosignaturesJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:9b5a8cb5-1bf4-4b72-ae04-f234d89cda9aEnglishJisc Publications RouterNature Research2024Uthamacumaran, AAbrahão, FSKiani, NAZenil, HWe demonstrate that the assembly pathway method underlying assembly theory (AT) is an encoding scheme widely used by popular statistical compression algorithms. We show that in all cases (synthetic or natural) AT performs similarly to other simple coding schemes and underperforms compared to system-related indexes based upon algorithmic probability that take into account statistical repetitions but also the likelihood of other computable patterns. Our results imply that the assembly index does not offer substantial improvements over existing methods, including traditional statistical ones, and imply that the separation between living and non-living compounds following these methods has been reported before. |
| spellingShingle | Uthamacumaran, A Abrahão, FS Kiani, NA Zenil, H On the salient limitations of the methods of assembly theory and their classification of molecular biosignatures |
| title | On the salient limitations of the methods of assembly theory and their classification of molecular biosignatures |
| title_full | On the salient limitations of the methods of assembly theory and their classification of molecular biosignatures |
| title_fullStr | On the salient limitations of the methods of assembly theory and their classification of molecular biosignatures |
| title_full_unstemmed | On the salient limitations of the methods of assembly theory and their classification of molecular biosignatures |
| title_short | On the salient limitations of the methods of assembly theory and their classification of molecular biosignatures |
| title_sort | on the salient limitations of the methods of assembly theory and their classification of molecular biosignatures |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT uthamacumarana onthesalientlimitationsofthemethodsofassemblytheoryandtheirclassificationofmolecularbiosignatures AT abrahaofs onthesalientlimitationsofthemethodsofassemblytheoryandtheirclassificationofmolecularbiosignatures AT kianina onthesalientlimitationsofthemethodsofassemblytheoryandtheirclassificationofmolecularbiosignatures AT zenilh onthesalientlimitationsofthemethodsofassemblytheoryandtheirclassificationofmolecularbiosignatures |