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MODEL SYSTEMS. "These digital communities have been used to experimentally study ecological and evolutionary processes: e.g., competitive exclusion and coexistance, symbiosis, host/parasite density dependent population regulation, the effects of parasites in enhancing community diversity, evolutionary arms races, punctuated equilibrium, and the role of chance and historical factors in evolution." (TS Ray). https://lnkd.in/eYcp73P View in LinkedIn

DIGITAL ECOLOGIES. "Diverse ecological communities have emerged." https://lnkd.in/eYcp73P View in LinkedIn

EVOLVING DIGITAL ECOSYSTEM. "Hyper-parasites evolved which subvert parasites to their own reproduction and drive them to extinction. The resulting genetically uniform communities evolve sociality in the sense of creatures that can only reproduce in cooperative aggregations, and these aggregations are then invaded by cheating hyper-hyper-parasites." (TS Ray). https://lnkd.in/eYcp73P View in LinkedIn

CLOSED DIGITAL ECOSYSTEM. "The digital organisms are self-replicating computer programs, however, they can not escape because they run exclusively on a virtual computer in its unique machine language. From a single ancestral "creature" there have evolved tens of thousands of self-replicating genotypes of hundreds of genome size classes. Parasites evolved, then creatures that were immune to parasites, and then parasites that could circumvent the immunity." (TS Ray). https://lnkd.in/eYcp73P View in LinkedIn

LARGE VOCABULARY. “Decoding chemical communication in nematodes. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans produces tens, if not hundreds, of different ascarosides as pheromones to communicate with other members of its species.” https://lnkd.in/dXsN6Pj View in LinkedIn

"SYNTHETIC LIFE should self-replicate, and evolve structures or processes that were not designed-in or pre-conceived by the creator. Core Wars programs, computer viruses, and worms are capable of self-replication, but fortunately, not evolution. It is unlikely that such programs will ever become fully living, because they are not likely to be able to evolve." (TS Ray). https://lnkd.in/eYcp73P View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE focuses this second and last weekend on worm talk. This discovery is quite remarkable, even in its early stages. Biologists have made disappointing progress decoding the language of vocal animals such as birds and dolphins. But here we have humble nematodes with what looks like a sophisticated language, with syntax, which was supposed to be uniquely human. One day, we might be able to have a conversation with a worm over a nice cup of tea, and discuss their view of the universe. Such a prospect! View in LinkedIn

THOMAS S RAY featured heavily in the early days of synthetic life by creating Tierra, the pre-eminent synthetic life program. He is an ecological biologist who went into synthetic modeling and came out the other end "using the genome databases to study the origin and evolution of gene families." The following few quotes are from his work. https://lnkd.in/ehJiKXf View in LinkedIn

NOT THERE YET. "A self-organizing system not only regulates or adapts its behavior, it creates its own organization. In that respect it differs fundamentally from our present systems, which are created by their designer. Self-organizing systems are intrinsically robust: they can withstand a variety of errors, perturbations, or even partial destruction." https://lnkd.in/dkkAEiE View in LinkedIn

NET AGENTS. "Many of the most promising visions of how to coordinate the far-flung communication and computing cycles of this emerging platform converge on a controversial solution: the use of self-replicators that roam the Net. Free-ranging, self-replicating programs, autonomous Net agents, digital organisms - whatever they are called, there's an old fashion word for them: computer viruses." https://lnkd.in/e6ExXVY View in LinkedIn