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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

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

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.