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.