The problem with including codons in such a high level analogy of DNA is their context sensitive. DNA doesn’t care about those details and can be sliced an diced to completely change how it’s interpreted.
Also, you really should include activation sites etc, but soon your out of the realms of analogy and just describing the details.
The big component missing in the analogy is gene expression. That’s what makes DNA behave differently from simple instruction mappings.
I guess we could visualize it as a series of drains, where the size of the hole can be modulated. Since gene expression can decrease or increase the rate at which DNA is transcribed
I have been using this for a while. What would you suggest instead of:
> The workers, raw materials, and signals to turn sections on or off are separate.
People are used to the idea of thermostats using on/off to maintain temperature which is not a terrible association. As you say gene expression is different, but I can’t find a better analogy.
That's why I figured an analogy would include nucleotides as letters that make up words rather than acting on their own to be able to encompass all that (and I love that in trying to help craft better analogies in a chain where im also railing against analogies)
Also, you really should include activation sites etc, but soon your out of the realms of analogy and just describing the details.