Software Replica of Minimal Living Processes |
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Authors: | Hugues Bersini |
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Institution: | (1) IRI DIA–ULB, CP 194/6, 50, av. Franklin Roosevelt, 1050 Bruxelles, Belgium |
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Abstract: | There is a long tradition of software simulations in theoretical biology to complement pure analytical mathematics which are
often limited to reproduce and understand the self-organization phenomena resulting from the non-linear and spatially grounded
interactions of the huge number of diverse biological objects. Since John Von Neumann and Alan Turing pioneering works on
self-replication and morphogenesis, proponents of artificial life have chosen to resolutely neglecting a lot of materialistic
and quantitative information deemed not indispensable and have focused on the rule-based mechanisms making life possible,
supposedly neutral with respect to their underlying material embodiment. Minimal life begins at the intersection of a series
of processes which need to be isolated, differentiated and duplicated as such in computers. Only software developments and
running make possible to understand the way these processes are intimately interconnected in order for life to appear at the
crossroad. In this paper, I will attempt to set out the history of life as the disciples of artificial life understand it,
by placing these different lessons on a temporal and causal axis, showing which one is indispensable to the appearance of
the next and how does it connect to the next. I will discuss the task of artificial life as setting up experimental software
platforms where these different lessons, whether taken in isolation or together, are tested, simulated, and, more systematically,
analyzed. I will sketch some of these existing software platforms: chemical reaction networks, Varela’s autopoietic cellular
automata, Ganti’s chemoton model, whose running delivers interesting take home messages to open-minded biologists. |
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