Category: Uncategorized

SIMPLIFYING EFFICIENCY. "Pargellis found that on average, a self-replicating sequence of instructions would spontaneously arise after about 400 generations. Initially, such 'self-reps' were often unnecessarily complex, and contained portions of code which performed no useful task, or were skipped over. This is directly analagous to the 'introns' and 'exons' found in real biological genes, where useful genetic information is interspersed with patches of nonsense." https://lnkd.in/dJPTA3e View in LinkedIn

SOME MORE THAN OTHERS. “It seems more appropriate to consider life as a continuum property of organizational patterns, with some more or less alive than others.” (Farmer & Belin, 1992). https://lnkd.in/dEj5vVD View in LinkedIn

ADDITIVE SIMPLICITY. "Essentially, simple processes are combined with other simple processes and the result is complexity. That is a simplification, but in principle that is how AI machines “learn” – they take what they already “know” (what’s been coded into them) and combine and recombine that into all of the varieties that can be combined." https://lnkd.in/dxGnwJ3 View in LinkedIn

NOT ABSOLUTE. “Life is not an absolute quality which suddenly appeared, it gradually emerged at the beginning of the evolution. [...] there is no clear boundary line.” (Cairns-Smith, 1990). https://lnkd.in/dEj5vVD View in LinkedIn

SIMPLICITY GENERATES COMPLEXITY. "A first for the game, the replicator demonstrates how astounding complexity can arise from simple beginnings and processes – an echo of life’s origins, perhaps." https://lnkd.in/d-ckTpQ View in LinkedIn

ROUGH DIAMOND. "Ludwig managed a remarkable intellectual shift. He elevated the computer virus from the digital equivalent of a can of spray paint to an object capable of perhaps infinite variations and almost lifelike behavior. He transformed a tool of vandals into a field of scientific study by emphasizing a computer virus' biological affinity." (Graffiti malware to academic artificial life). https://lnkd.in/edrARjk View in LinkedIn

DIGITAL INFORMS BIOLOGY. "Running his beloved viruses through assorted experimental hoops and mazes, Ludwig followed them to the conclusion that Darwinian evolutionary mechanisms alone are just not mathematically fertile enough to have created and shaped life as we know it." https://lnkd.in/edrARjk View in LinkedIn

BINGO! Code elements that can swap information randomly, and which have some inheritable memory of antecedent code? This sounds like the digital equivalent of viruses and bacteria in nature. https://lnkd.in/edrARjk View in LinkedIn

BREEDING CODE. “The result: Ludwig's "Darwinian Genetic Mutation Engine," a programming utility that turns any normal DOS virus into a souped-up, genetically evolving polymorph, complete with an option for sexual gene-swapping between individuals that come into contact in the wild." https://lnkd.in/edrARjk View in LinkedIn

GENETIC INHERITANCE. "Surveying the fossil record of this game, Ludwig found himself pondering a logical next move: what if someone were now to develop a strain of polymorphs with a genetic memory, so that rather than completely reshuffling their structure with every generation, the few mutants that escape discovery by heuristics could pass their undetectable code on to their offspring?" https://lnkd.in/edrARjk View in LinkedIn