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ARTIFICIAL LIFE. “Computer viruses are the first and only form of artificial life to have had a measurable impact on society.” https://books.google.com/books?id=8a6uC0BbyjAC&pg=PA130&lpg=PA130&dq=computer+viruses+as+artificial+life&source=bl&ots=Uh-Oksfh6f&sig=f8yHoGRadVGtO8pucwuImn5PLPo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjxloe0q47LAhUCMyYKHVyyBhYQ6AEIJjAF View in LinkedIn

DIGITAL JURASSIC. “We must take steps to shape the emergence of artificial organisms; they have the potential to be either the ugliest terrestrial disaster, or the most beautiful creation of humanity." ( Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the Santa Fe Insitute).” https://lnkd.in/dMvAeqz View in LinkedIn

COMPUTER VIRUSES LIVE. “British physicist Stephen Hawking says a computer virus fits the definition of a living system even though it has no metabolism of its own, and instead uses the metabolism of a host computer for its parasitic existence. "I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We've created life in our own image," says Hawking.” https://lnkd.in/dS48jDJ View in LinkedIn

“PATHOLOGY OF COMPUTER VIRUSES. Computer viruses broadly meet the general criteria for artificial life, but this author does not think that they qualify as living.” https://books.google.com/books?id=_VLmBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA47&lpg=PA47&dq=computer+virus+metabolism&source=bl&ots=VZ5Xit6TPg&sig=2EBk5kG-yFSqUID0C-MnUht1dPc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi51qLC35fLAhUBcj4KHQW-B9AQ6AEIDDAB View in LinkedIn

TURING MACHINES. “Such a mechanistic, bottom-up doctrine does not explain the true living nature of organisms as it ignores the top-down, context-dependent and agent-based aspects of living nature.” http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3512409/ View in LinkedIn

COMMON VIEW. “Nobel laureate Sydney Brenner argued that Turing machines have much in common with cells and living organisms; that cells and living organisms are, in fact, the best examples of Turing's and von Neumann's machines.” http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3512409/ View in LinkedIn

PRESS RESET. “Life's code script does not code itself. The machine metaphor for living organisms is outdated.” https://lnkd.in/dp43QEu View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE focuses on the idea of organisms as machines, a common idea. Günther Witzany is a well published independent author, and brings a fresh perspective on biology. The common language in biology today tends to be mechanistic, with cells as wired machines, replete with engineer-able parts that can be switched on an off. But slowly, we are realizing this is a false analogy. View in LinkedIn