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As a biologist with nearly no physics knowledge, this sort of work seems to have more in common with setting up quantum computers than it does with thinking abo
by rotexo 4y ago
As a biologist with nearly no physics knowledge, this sort of work seems to have more in common with setting up quantum computers than it does with thinking about self-replication in living organisms, at least in terms of the lack of robustness to environmental noise. Maybe that is just overly metaphorical thinking on my part.
- nneonneo 4y agoIt’s mathematics and computer science, not biology. Nobody is claiming that a setup requiring 2^1500000 units of space to run is anywhere near a realistic simulation of biological processes :) Nevertheless, it’s a fantastic example of how simple rules can give rise to complex systems.
- dvgrn 4y agoYup, the connection to self-replication has showed up mostly in the discussion here, in relation to true self-replicating patterns like the https://conwaylife.com/wiki/0E0P_metacell https://conwaylife.com/wiki/0E0P_metacell -- which does have a few vaguely cell-like attributes. The RCT design is very much a mathematical construct, as opposed to anything with a biological inspiration. And the RCT's ability to construct itself is more of a theoretical afterthought at this point -- the engineering work hasn't been done yet to produce a demo of that kind of thing. The point is well taken, about the fragility of Conway's Life with respect to environmental noise. That topic has also come up here and there in these comments, e.g., https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33797799#33800301 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33797799#33800301