[extropy-chat] Self replicating computer programs ?

[Eugen Leitl]

On Thu, Nov 13, 2003 at 12:04:20PM +1100, Brett Paatsch wrote:

> Hmm. Maybe I am overlooking the bleeding obvious
> but I can't think of a single fully self-replicating 
> computer program - one that does not require
> impute from outside itself to kick off the duplication. 

I do not understand what you're getting at. If there are no resources
external to the agent it obviously can't replicate. Self-replication depends on
context. In some contexts, self-replication is trivial to achieve:

<http://necsi.org/postdocs/sayama/sdsr/java/> (will need Java to run),

being an near-optimal supportive context. Corewars is only marginally less
supportive, and many real systems can be hit by pathogens fitting inside a
single packet (404 Bytes UDP packet):
http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~nweaver/sapphire/

Self-replication in physical reality is harder (viroids and viruses use
other, more complex self-replicators as substrates), but some extremophiles
have very small genomes and overall complexity.

Similiarly, artificial self-replication is far easier in artificial, very
rich environments offering optimal support. A successful gray goo weapon is
considerably harder to design.

-- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a>
______________________________________________________________
ICBM: 48.07078, 11.61144 http://www.leitl.org
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