Year: 2022

"CELLULAR AUTOMATA can be characterized as an array of identical processing units called cel ls that are arranged and interconnected throughout space in a regular manner. At each tick of simulated time each cell simultaneously changes state as a function of its own current state and the state of its immediately neighboring cells. In other words a cell makes a decision about its new state based on its four adjacent cells plus its own state." https://lnkd.in/dAx3RM7 View in LinkedIn

MINIMAL CELL. "While the work by von Neumann established that artificial self replication is possible it left open the question of the minimal logical organization necessary for self replication." https://lnkd.in/dAx3RM7 View in LinkedIn

MINIMAL GENOME. "Design and synthesis of a minimal bacterial genome. A goal in biology is to understand the molecular and biological function of every gene in a cell. One way to approach this is to build a minimal genome that includes only the genes essential for life." (Venter). https://lnkd.in/duQe9uW View in LinkedIn

HITCHHIKER'S ANSWER. "While Douglas Adams’ answer to the ultimate question of life is 42; the real answer might be closer to 473 – the minimum number of genes required to sustain life under ideal environmental conditions. The smallest known mycoplasma genome (Mycoplasma genitalium; containing 525 genes) provided the most obvious starting point from which to determine the minimal genome." https://lnkd.in/dSXRRHt View in LinkedIn

LIFE, THE UNIVERSE AND EVERYTHING. "Genomics entrepreneur Craig Venter has created a synthetic cell that contains the smallest genome of any known, independent organism. Functioning with 473 genes, the cell is a milestone in his team’s 20-year quest to reduce life to its bare essentials and, by extension, to design life from scratch." https://lnkd.in/eFyYj-B View in LinkedIn

"JOHNNYVON is an implementation of self-replicating machines in continuous two-dimensional space. Two types of particles drift about in a virtual liquid. The particles are automata with discrete internal states but continuous external relationships." (JohnnyVon after Von Neumann). https://lnkd.in/dM2XhS8 View in LinkedIn

PARTICLES IN VIRTUAL LIQUID. "Their internal states are governed by finite state machines, but their external relationships are governed by a simulated physics that includes Brownian motion, viscosity, and springlike attractive and repulsive forces. The particles can be assembled into patterns that can encode arbitrary strings of bits." (JohnnyVon). https://lnkd.in/dM2XhS8 View in LinkedIn

SELF-COPYING. "We demonstrate that, if an arbitrary seed pattern is put in a soup of separate individual particles, the pattern will replicate by assembling the individual particles into copies of itself. We also show that, given sufficient time, a soup of separate individual particles will eventually spontaneously form self-replicating patterns." https://lnkd.in/dM2XhS8 View in LinkedIn

PRIMAL VIRTUAL SOUP. "The objects are like DNA's codons...Codons are sequences of three nucleotides in a string of genetic code; the portion of DNA that makes up a gene is much longer. Genes provide a blueprint for making a specific protein. Each codon specifies a particular amino acid needed for that protein. The virtual objects assemble into patterns similar to the way codons make up strands of DNA or RNA." https://lnkd.in/d8KYVgC View in LinkedIn

THE NEXT STRING quotes an interesting article about self-modifying computer code, written by Kory Becker, a software developer, an architect, and entrepreneur. https://lnkd.in/duGaB2D View in LinkedIn