Code center > Suggestions
Emergent Systems
Ulciscor:
:( I feel bad now.. Sorry [PY] I just never got what you meant. I expect you were describing it as a scientist whereas I was describing it as a complete novice (no offense to anyone!)
[PY] what is was thinking was:
--- Code: ---DNA command --> Environmental interaction --> Action
--- End code ---
Do you mean that you don't want commands to commute? (Have been doing maths for the last month so I'm going crazy with maths words).
I.e. "x y" doing one thing and "y x" doing another?
PurpleYouko:
Not in so many words.
--- Quote ---DNA command --> Environmental interaction --> Action
--- End quote ---
Let's break this down a tad.
DNA command:
In real life this is a code made of base pairs. let's treat each pair as a "bit". Bang 64 of them together to make a full command. Mutate them bitwise. Result = incredibly complex DNA language that few if any people will be able to program.
Environmental Interaction (I would call it Interface):
This is the crux of the issue. Somehow every possible DNA command has to be translatd into an action in the real world. This is where the disagreements seem to appear.
Think of this as a DNA interpretter. Every possible DNA command has to be interpretted into an action. No emergent funtion can possibly get through this interpretter unless it already contains the possiblity.
Imagine it as an English-Swedish interpretter. All existing word of both languages must be included if there is to be meaningful comunication. If The Swedish language evolves a new word that cannot be directly interpretted into English under the existing rules then it will result in a NULL action.
Am I making sense here with these analogies? Let me know if not. I have always had the hardest job comunicating this concept to others. I think Num is about the only other person who really sees this problem as clearly as I do.
Ulciscor:
Maybe I am underestimating this, but I was thinking group commands together when they have common manipulations.
I'm not entirely getting this base pair/bit thing. Can you try and make it clearer? Or possibly word it differently. I'm notoriously dense.
PurpleYouko:
Grouping commands together is good but what I am suggesting is an almost infinite variability within a single command that will allow them to almost flow into each other.
Base pairs are the way that real DNA works. A base pair is kind of like a digital system in a way. Only a certain number of possible combinations exist. The complexity is created by having huge strings of base pairs in different orders to make up a single strand of DNA.
In a computer sim we need to translate this into binary math (the bit system) so I am just thinking that a digital DNA strand would be made up of a stream of bits which for sake of argument could be 64 bits in length.(this will fit into a long type variable nicely) This effectively simulates a very simplified DNA strand in which each base pair can only be in one of two states (0 or 1) instead of the number available in real DNA. The combinations possible with 64 bits making up a single command are 9.22E18 (otherwise know as LOTS)
Some kind of interpretter than takes this DNA command and acts on it to do all kinds of stuff is what we need next.
Ulciscor:
Yeah that is a big number, but can't we rule out some commands as impossible? Rule out others as duplicates?
Aren't 64 bits for a command quite a lot?
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