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RASMUSSEN'S VENUS. "In VENUS, genetically-programmed digital organisms occupy memory, and each block of memory has a specific "resource value" to it--it can vary from a desert (very few resources) to a jungle (many resources); this resource value is added at a steady state, analogous to an external energy source such as sunlight. These digital organisms compete for this memory space and use it for energy, and to go on "living" they must have enough resources to sustain themselves and their growth." https://lnkd.in/etiQ6T7 View in LinkedIn

LOVING MACHINES. Rasmussen "sees us inventing machines that can "love more deeply" than may be humanly possible." https://lnkd.in/dwADMWc View in LinkedIn

NOT THE END-GAME. "[W]e as humans are naive if we believe that we are the end product of evolution. I'm sure we are not." (Steen Rasmussen). https://lnkd.in/dwADMWc View in LinkedIn

INTERESTING VIEW. Steen Rasmussen on video. https://lnkd.in/dTvYrn4 View in LinkedIn

"STEEN RASMUSSEN. The main scientific effort of Steen Rasmussen over the last ten years has been to explore, understand and construct a transition from nonliving to living materials. He became a scientific team leader in 2002 at Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA, and he has since held research leadership positions at the Santa Fe Institute, University of Copenhagen and University of Southern Denmark." https://lnkd.in/dEYN9m2 View in LinkedIn

GIANT POSSIBILITIES. "As everyone knows, a random nucleotide strand as long as an average gene has an absurdly high number of possible sequences. If an average gene is 1,000 nucleotides, the number of possible sequences it can have is 4^1000, or about 10^600. The chance of finding any gene currently expressed anywhere in biology in that sequence space, in even 10^50 trials, is less than 10^-500." https://lnkd.in/dH9XaVn View in LinkedIn

MONOCULTURES. "The vulnerability of monocultures to disease and insects...Pathogens spread more readily, and epidemics tend to be more severe, when the host plants (or animals) are more genetically uniform and crowded. The pathogens encounter less resistance to spreading than they do in mixed stands. Outbreaks of disease, invasions of insects, and climatic anomalies have caused many wholesale crop and animal failures in the past." https://lnkd.in/dcM4Wxq View in LinkedIn

COLD COMFORT. "Several parties have attempted calculations of the likelihood of viruses evolving from "inanimate code" by random mutation. In general, the time estimated for such an event was several times the lifespan of the universe. Yet most studies shared significant flaws...in the calculations." (Page 50). https://lnkd.in/etkXtU6 View in LinkedIn

NATURE IS INDIFFERENT. "All these programs have fitness functions which is explicitely a direction given by an intelligent agent. Nature has no fitness function. Nature, or rather Darwin’s version of nature, doesn’t give a flying flop if anything is alive or not." https://lnkd.in/dZqxxrU View in LinkedIn

VIRAL CODE EVOLUTION. "At least one case has been seen of two viruses "crossing over" to produce offspring...(but) a random change is unlikely to create a viable program. This however does not prevent evolution." (Page 50). https://lnkd.in/etkXtU6 View in LinkedIn