Bots and Simulations > Evolution and Internet Sharing Sims

First unusual thing: INMORTAL BOT???

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shvarz:
Well, there is no such thing as permanent waste at all.  If there were, then we would have no bacteria, because bacteria can live forever.

As far as waste goes, while it is true that some products of metabolism are directly harmful to DNA, those are a minority.  Most waste products are harmful because they accumulate in high concentration in the body.  It is not that they are inhertently toxic, it's just that any compound present in a very high concentration in organism is going to mess things up.

The link between calorie restriction and longevity is an intersting one, but is not explained yet.  My personal opinion is that it does not have anything to do with the rate of metabolism and generation of waste, but is rather a regulatory mechanism, which ensures quick change of generations when times are good and long generations when food is scarce.

Jez:
Thanks, didn't know that about bacteria.


--- Quote ---a regulatory mechanism, which ensures a quick change of generations when times are good and long generations when food is scarce.
--- End quote ---

Sounds like pwaste is doing the right sort of thing for now, maybe someone will come up with a better way of modeling it for DB in the future, like allowing pwaste to be switched off so you can more accurately replicate bacteria.

Maybe making it part of the code, or genetic, allowing the bot to gain a bit more nutrition from the food or gain nutrition from a food it couldn't use otherwise might be better.  

Numsgil:
If you set the waste threshold to 0, you will effectively turn off waste effects.  Just a postscript

EricL:

--- Quote from: shvarz ---The link between calorie restriction and longevity is an intersting one, but is not explained yet.  My personal opinion is that it does not have anything to do with the rate of metabolism and generation of waste, but is rather a regulatory mechanism, which ensures quick change of generations when times are good and long generations when food is scarce.
--- End quote ---

There have been some new studies here which basicaly confirm Shvarz's opinion.  Turns out that in rats, yes, if you restrict their calorie intake, they live longer but the reason they live longer is only indirectly related to caloric intake.  A tremendous percentage of a rat's metabolism is geared towards reproduction, much more so than for msot other animals or mammels.  Turns out when you restrict caloric intake sufficiently, the rat stops reproducing and applyies what caloric intake remains towards cell repair, etc. making the rat live longer.

It's the reallocation of resources away from reproduction that leads to longer life (in rats) and not the lower caloric intake per se.  The study I read said it was unlikely similar results would occur in other species which don't share the same resoruce utilization bias towards massive reproduction.

Numsgil:
Very interesting.

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