nice find, Neo. some random thoughts...
Quote:Damer notes that present-day computer simulations run much more slowly than chemical reactions, but he anticipates that in the next 20 to 40 years, with the help of millions of microprocessors, an entire cell could be simulated in cyberspace
That's it! A lousy cell in 40 years? Bostrom and I think we can simulate the universe in 20. Didn't these guys ever hear of Moore's Law?
I like the concept, though, of playing around with initial conditions and seeing how easy it might be for life to form.
Quote:Even if the EvoGrid managed to generate some virtual but convincing life forms, either through random or directed means, "the numbers will always be numbers," says Damer. "As Baricelli wrote over fifty years ago, they will never be living organisms."
Really? How do we describe the strings that make up the atoms, elements, and general matter, that comprise our bodies and our world? Ultimately, once the true building blocks or reality are found, they will either be purely described by numbers, or will just be pure numbers. I bet on the latter, of course.
