3 ms·

> whereas it would be very bad if basic operations in a CPU had similar level of error rates Evolution is about mutations when the executable file is copied.

withinboredom 3y ago
That isn't how evolution works (or at least it is a gross generalization that is borderline wrong). You own cells mutate over your lifetime and the mutations may trigger genetic features across your entire body. Sometimes, these mutations cause errors that we call cancer, but not always. Evolution is when a certain genetic feature provides better fitness (which doesn't necessarily have to come from a mutation), and then gets selected through mating. For example, if suddenly people with brown hair were a better mate, it would be much more likely for the next generation to have brown hair, until non-brown hair were "evolved" out of the gene pool completely and it would be impossible to not have brown hair. This is how we got orange carrots, which are distinct from the previous non-orange carrots, for example.
- tralarpa 3y ago
  > which doesn't necessarily have to come from a mutation My comment referred to OP's association of evolution with errors in genetic encoding and expression, hence my quote.
- willy_k 3y ago
  So evolution is copying the state of a running executable (one that’s poorly memory managed and dependent on external variables) instead of the file itself, and evolution favors favors the copies that survive and maybe even run faster or are otherwise better.
  - withinboredom 3y ago
    Not exactly, evolution doesn’t happen instantly. A digital comparison to an organism would be something like this: An organism is a collection a billions of threads all running the same code but starting at seemingly random entry points. Before dying, each thread forks one or more threads (depending on external factors like available memory). In order to reproduce, the “father” code sends a copy of its current code, but only the bottom word of every byte. The “mother” program combines this with the top word of every byte and then executes it in a chroot jail to make sure it will actually run. Once it is confident it will run, it “births” it onto its own machine. Every thread in this process is running on non-ECC memory, with cosmic rays bit-flipping things, though there are threads running around making fixes to broken threads (actually, just killing them before they can fork). The implementation of the threads isn’t relevant here (such as modeling proteins, atp pumps, and such). In this, evolution fitness would be less cancer (fork bombs), doing usable work, successfully mating, etc. This evolution pressure might look like preventing mating until the program is a certain age or performed certain milestones and a “score” of how well it has done its work (both partners want a good “life score” but not too high — liars could exist! — to proceed with mating). Evolution would occur naturally over many generations. From one generation to the next, they look nearly identical, but from hundreds of generations they might look identical, or not. The “not” part is evolution.

withinboredom 3y ago

That isn't how evolution works (or at least it is a gross generalization that is borderline wrong). You own cells mutate over your lifetime and the mutations may trigger genetic features across your entire body. Sometimes, these mutations cause errors that we call cancer, but not always. Evolution is when a certain genetic feature provides better fitness (which doesn't necessarily have to come from a mutation), and then gets selected through mating. For example, if suddenly people with brown hair were a better mate, it would be much more likely for the next generation to have brown hair, until non-brown hair were "evolved" out of the gene pool completely and it would be impossible to not have brown hair. This is how we got orange carrots, which are distinct from the previous non-orange carrots, for example.

tralarpa 3y ago
> which doesn't necessarily have to come from a mutation My comment referred to OP's association of evolution with errors in genetic encoding and expression, hence my quote.
willy_k 3y ago
So evolution is copying the state of a running executable (one that’s poorly memory managed and dependent on external variables) instead of the file itself, and evolution favors favors the copies that survive and maybe even run faster or are otherwise better.
- withinboredom 3y ago
  Not exactly, evolution doesn’t happen instantly. A digital comparison to an organism would be something like this: An organism is a collection a billions of threads all running the same code but starting at seemingly random entry points. Before dying, each thread forks one or more threads (depending on external factors like available memory). In order to reproduce, the “father” code sends a copy of its current code, but only the bottom word of every byte. The “mother” program combines this with the top word of every byte and then executes it in a chroot jail to make sure it will actually run. Once it is confident it will run, it “births” it onto its own machine. Every thread in this process is running on non-ECC memory, with cosmic rays bit-flipping things, though there are threads running around making fixes to broken threads (actually, just killing them before they can fork). The implementation of the threads isn’t relevant here (such as modeling proteins, atp pumps, and such). In this, evolution fitness would be less cancer (fork bombs), doing usable work, successfully mating, etc. This evolution pressure might look like preventing mating until the program is a certain age or performed certain milestones and a “score” of how well it has done its work (both partners want a good “life score” but not too high — liars could exist! — to proceed with mating). Evolution would occur naturally over many generations. From one generation to the next, they look nearly identical, but from hundreds of generations they might look identical, or not. The “not” part is evolution.