> you may know how to drive a car, but can you synthesize DNA?
I think the framing is wrong here. A cell synthesizes DNA mechanically and without will or intent. The cell is made up of molecules that grab other molecules and operate on the other molecules to do something (repair, replicate, infect, etc.). When the right molecules come into contact with their targets, the synthesis just happens by the chemistry and physics that dictate the shape and movement of the molecules (modulo the stochastic and probabilistic process of other molecules moving around and becoming available). What we call life is an ever more complex set of molecules and their organization that allows their mechanical self-replication--and the other complex processes that extract and build all the constituent molecules from the environment (by building other molecular structures such as cell walls that also act mechanically on the molecules of the environment).
I think the framing is wrong here. A cell synthesizes DNA mechanically and without will or intent. The cell is made up of molecules that grab other molecules and operate on the other molecules to do something (repair, replicate, infect, etc.). When the right molecules come into contact with their targets, the synthesis just happens by the chemistry and physics that dictate the shape and movement of the molecules (modulo the stochastic and probabilistic process of other molecules moving around and becoming available). What we call life is an ever more complex set of molecules and their organization that allows their mechanical self-replication--and the other complex processes that extract and build all the constituent molecules from the environment (by building other molecular structures such as cell walls that also act mechanically on the molecules of the environment).