“Studying Artificial Life With Cellular Automata”, Christopher G. Langton1986-10 (cellular automata; backlinks)⁠:

[famous for introducing Langton’s ant] Biochemistry studies the way in which life emerges from the interaction of inanimate molecules. In this paper we look into the possibility that life could emerge from the interaction of inanimate artificial molecules. Cellular automata provide us with the logical universes within which we can embed artificial molecules in the form of propagating, virtual automata.

We suggest that since virtual automata have the computational capacity to fill many of the functional roles played by the primary biomolecules, there is a strong possibility that the ‘molecular logic’ of life can be embedded within cellular automata and that, therefore, artificial life is a distinct possibility within these highly parallel computer structures.

…We will approach this study in the following manner. First, we will discuss some of the major functional roles carried out by biomolecules.

Then we will look at cellular automata and a study of the way in which systems of interacting artificial molecules can arise spontaneously in these highly parallel computing structures.

Next, we will look at these artificial molecules as ‘virtual’ automata and examine their potential for carrying out the kinds of functional roles that are carried out by the various biomolecules.

We then show examples of some artificial biochemistries and two examples of systems of virtual automata that support other ‘life-like’ behaviors: a simulated insect colony and a self-reproducing structure.

We conclude with a brief discussion of how such systems might by applied to the study of emergent behavior in general.

See Also:

• Fundamental behaviors emerge from simulations of a living minimal cell

• Synthetic living machines: A new window on life

• The rise of intelligent matter

• An RNA-Based Theory of Natural Universal Computation

• Can Self-Replicating Species Flourish in the Interior of a Star?

• Continuous Cell-Free Replication and Evolution of Artificial Genomic DNA in a Compartmentalized Gene Expression System

• Endogenous Electric Signaling as a Blueprint for Conductive Materials in Tissue Engineering

• The foundations of plant intelligence

• Collective Intelligence for Deep Learning: A Survey of Recent Developments

• Perceptein: A synthetic protein-level neural network in mammalian cells

• A cellular platform for the development of synthetic living machines

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