Testing Darwin

Carl Zimmer ^

[mc6809e]

After more than a decade of development, Avida's digital organisms are now getting close to fulfilling the definition of biological life. “More and more of the features that biologists have said were necessary for life we can check off,” says Robert Pennock, a philosopher at Michigan State and a member of the Avida team. “Does this, does that, does this. Metabolism? Maybe not quite yet, but getting pretty close.”

[snip]

The researchers set up an experiment to document how one particularly complex operation evolved. The operation, known as equals, consists of comparing pairs of binary numbers, bit by bit, and recording whether each pair of digits is the same. It's a standard operation found in software, but it's not a simple one. The shortest equals program Ofria could write is 19 lines long. The chances that random mutations alone could produce it are about one in a thousand trillion trillion.

To test Darwin's idea that complex systems evolve from simpler precursors, the Avida team set up rewards for simpler operations and bigger rewards for more complex ones. The researchers set up an experiment in which organisms replicate for 16,000generations. They then repeated the experiment 50 times.

Avida beat the odds. In 23 of the 50 trials, evolution produced organisms that could carry out the equals operation. And when the researchers took away rewards for simpler operations, the organisms never evolved an equals program. “When we looked at the 23 tests, they were all done in completely different ways,” adds Ofria. He was reminded of how Darwin pointed out that many evolutionary paths can produce the same complex organ.

[RaceBannon]

I been sober for years, but I do still pig out...a little too often, too...

[The Mike Device]

Oh, so that was my mistake. Arguing with the sober ;)
Have a good night.

[RaceBannon]

I am getting A.D.D. when I do read some posts, though, I tend to concentrate on single sentences too often, so, I aint innocent in this...

[Urbane_Guerilla]

Wow. Evolutionists running programs to try to determine if what they believe might be possible. I guess if you don't have a clue how speciation takes place, then a computer program might help buck up your faith. Especially if you also believe that the human mind could possibly comprehend and eliminate every explanation for existence in a universe impossible to fathom.

[upier]

Bump for later read

[js1138]

Ofria is getting awfully romantic about the fact that his progam isn't working the way he thought it would. If that's the definition of AI, then Microsoft gave birth years ago.

No, Avida runs without crashing. I know, because I run it at home.

[js1138]

Funny how a book written between 3000 and 2000 years ago can fit with modern physics, isn't it?

It's not so strange when you consider that nothing in religion can ever be proved wrong. reinterpreting vague statements with hindsight is not science.

[js1138]

You are free to download the source code, analyze it and educate us about its flaws.

[D Rider]

It's not so strange when you consider that nothing in religion can ever be proved wrong.

Or when people can make banal generalities like yours. Have you ever considered the state of medicine, such as Egyptian medicine at the time Moses wrote the Torah? The Torah is medically modern. How about the Hindu belief that the earth is a disk on the back of a turtle...etc. That cannot be proved incorrect today? Interesting.

[js1138]

Pillars, turtles, what's the difference. On the other hand, Hinduism sets the age of the universe at about seven billion years. Pretty good for guesswork.