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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

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

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

"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

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

ACCIDENTAL SELF-MODIFYING CODE. "The term is usually only applied to code where the self-modification is intentional, not in situations where code accidentally modifies itself due to an error such as a buffer overflow." Wow. Runaway train. https://lnkd.in/ddCjHJk View in LinkedIn

CIRCUIT TRANSISTORS. "The molecular circuits of life that recognize or give rise to natural products are highly complex and interconnected with the circuits that are responsive to developmental and environmental controls. Natural products often function as "transistors" to switch on or switch off these circuits." https://lnkd.in/dEpJBda View in LinkedIn

SELF-MODIFYING CODE. "In computer science, self-modifying code is code that alters its own instructions while it is executing - usually to reduce the instruction path length and improve performance or simply to reduce otherwise repetitively similar code, thus simplifying maintenance. Self modification is an alternative to the method of "flag setting" and conditional program branching, used primarily to reduce the number of times a condition needs to be tested” https://lnkd.in/ddCjHJk View in LinkedIn

SUPERCLUSTER MIXERS. "Preliminary data suggests that one organizational mechanism makes use of transposons to duplicate or move DNA segments (that code for protein domains) into existing biosynthetic genes. This mechanism could move new genes into existing natural product gene clusters or could move an entire gene cluster of one natural product class...close to that of another class, such that the expression of the "supercluster" becomes coupled and gives rise to a hybrid-type natural product." https://lnkd.in/dEpJBda View in LinkedIn

SELF-REPLICATING CODE LOOPS. "He knew that even then that working from many interactions -- from the bottom up -- it was possible to yield the sort of complex interactions that nature pulls off all the time." https://lnkd.in/dJpC_P3 View in LinkedIn