The organic builder: a public experiment in artificial chemistries and self-replication.
We describe some results submitted by users of the Organic Builder, a Java applet where the rules of an artificial chemistry can be chosen in order to achieve a desired behavior. Though it was initially intended as a set of challenges to be tackled as a game, the users experimented with the system far beyond this and discovered several novel forms of self-replicators. When searching for a system with certain properties such asself-replication, making the system accessible to the public through a Web site is an unusual but effective way of making scientific discoveries, credit for which must go to the users themselves for their tireless experimentation and innovation.
Hutton
Tim J
TJ
Department of Computer Science, University College London, UK. tim.hutton@gmail.com
D000465:Algorithms; D001331:Automation; D008956:Models, Chemical; D011381:Programming Languages; D012984:Software