Bruce Damer on EvoGrid @ SMARTLab-Oct 2008
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The EvoGrid Origins of Life Question Vision How Consequences Simulating an Origin of Life Event
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Bruce Damer's presentation of the EvoGrid initiative at the SMARTLab in October of 2008
Transcript of Bruce Damer on EvoGrid @ SMARTLab-Oct 2008
The EvoGrid
Origins of LifeQuestion
VisionHow
Consequences
Simulating an Origin of Life Event
Origins of Life: Archaean to CambrianDigital Burgess 1997, A quest for life’s algorithmic
origins in the “Cambrian Explosion”, Biota.org
Early exemplar: Karl Sims’ Evolving Virtual Creatures (1991-4)
Artificial Life: Concept begins in the 1940s, field named in the 1980s,
progress through the 1990s, 2000s
Karl Sims’ Evolving Virtual Creatures
The Question
Can Artificial Life arise spontaneously from Artificial Non-Life
and does this shed light onthe Origins of Life from Non-Life
& etc. etc.
The Vision: EvoGrid The MovieA Thought Experiment - Storyboards
EvoGrid The MovieA Thought Experiment – Rough Cut 3
The How: Implementation
The How: Implementation
The Consequences
Will biologists (one day) declare these synthetic biological environments “worthy of study as a living system”?
Would an EvoGrid and harnessing the power of evolution become a tool for Humanity in the 21st Century? Would it become a mechanism for life’s expanded presence into the Solar System or for the survival and extension of life on Earth?
How does a successful origin of life simulation affect our sense of God, our presence in the Universe and the future of life?
New Book: Divine Action and Natural Selection
Damer Chapter: The God Detector, Gordon Chapter: Hoyle’s Tornado and the Origin of Artificial Life
Seckbach, Gordon, World Scientific (2008)
Upcoming book (launch October 27th, 2008)
(Only at the very beginning of this thinking)
Closing Thought
Resources and Acknowledgements
Project EvoGrid at: http://www.evogrid.orgProject Biota & Podcast at: http://www.biota.org
DigitalSpace 3D simulations and all (open) source code at: http://www.digitalspace.com
We would also like to thank NASA and many others for funding support for this work. Other acknowledgements for this presentation include: Dr. Richard Gordon at the University of Manitoba, the team at DM3D Studios, Peter Newman, Ryan Norkus, Exploring Life’s Origins Project, Scientific American Frontiers, and S. Gross.
