Self-modifying code.

Self-modifying code.

I am reminded of an old alife simulation called Tierra. You might even still find the source code on the Web somewhere. It seeded a virtual machine with a short bit of code that could make copies of itself. The virtual machine would flip bits at random. Sometimes the resulting mutation would run and reproduce. Some mutations produced code that could only reproduce in the presence of a different piece of code.

But it all suggests that indeed:

Life itself is computation.
https://www.quantamagazine.org/20150818-a-surprise-source-of-lifes-code/

Comments

  1. Vinzent Höfler (Jellix)August 20, 2015 at 5:54 AM

    It's still out there: http://life.ou.edu/tierra/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Typhoon JimAugust 20, 2015 at 5:57 AM

    See previous criticisms of pancomputation. in short, I can write a metaphor for anything but must be careful not to over extend.

    ReplyDelete

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