Name
Abstract | ||
|---|---|---|
Our concepts of biology, evolution, and complexity are constrained by having observed only a single instance of life, life
on Earth. A truly comparative biology is needed to extend these concepts. Because we cannot observe life on other planets,
we are left with the alternative of creating artificial life forms on Earth. I will discuss the approach of inoculating evolution
by natural selection into the medium of the digital computer. This is not a physical/chemical medium, it is a logical/informational
medium. Thus these new instances of evolution are not subject to the same physical laws as organic evolution (e.g., the laws
of thermodynamics), and therefore exist in what amounts to another universe, governed by the“physical laws”
of the logic of the computer. This exercise gives us a broader perspective on what evolution is and what it does.
An evolutionary approach to synthetic biology consists of inoculating the process of evolution by natural selection into an
artificial medium. Evolution is then allowed to find the natural forms of living organisms in the artificial medium. These
are not models of life, but independent instances of life. This essay is intended to communicate a way of thinking about synthetic
biology that leads to a particular approach: to understand and respect the natural form of the artificial medium, to facilitate
the process of evolution in generating forms that are adapted to the medium, and to let evolution find forms and processes
that naturally exploit the possibilities inherent in the medium. Examples are cited of synthetic biology embedded in the computational
medium, where in addition to being an exercise in experimental comparative evolutionary biology, it is also a possible means
of harnessing the evolutionary process for the production of complex computer software.
|
Year | DOI | Venue |
|---|---|---|
1994 | 10.1162/artl.1993.1.179 | Advances in evolutionary computing |
Keywords | Field | DocType |
new google,function drawchart,load alert2,var data,function loadalert2,synthetic biology function settab,function letemknow,evolutionary approach,load alert,function loadalert,function testthis,ecology,parallel computation,evolution,artificial life,complexity,natural selection,evolutionary biology,parallel computer,thermodynamics,synthetic biology | Artificial life,Evolutionary algorithm,Computer science,Evolutionary computation,Evolution strategy,Artificial intelligence,Physical law,Artificial creation,Laws of thermodynamics,Synthetic biology | Journal |
Volume | Issue | ISSN |
1 | 1-2 | 1064-5462 |
ISBN | Citations | PageRank |
3-540-43330-9 | 54 | 11.56 |
References | Authors | |
6 | 1 | |
Name | Order | Citations | PageRank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thomas S. Ray | 1 | 123 | 28.09 |