Researching the conditions for the emergence of life -- not necessarily as it is, but as it could be -- is one of the main goals of Artificial Life. Answering this question requires a model that can first explain the emergence of evolvable units , namely, structures that (1) preserve themselves in time (2) self-reproduce and (3) can tolerate a certain amount of variation when reproducing. To tackle this challenge, here we introduce Combinatory Chemistry, an Algorithmic Artificial Chemistry based on a simple computational paradigm named Combinatory Logic. The dynamics of this system comprise very few rules, it is initialized with an elementary tabula rasa state, and features conservation laws replicating natural resource constraints. Our experiments show that a single run of this dynamical system  discovers a wide range of emergent patterns with no external intervention . All these structures rely on acquiring basic constituents from the environment and decomposing them in a process that is remarkably similar to biological metabolisms. These patterns involve autopoietic structures that maintain URLanisation, recursive ones that grow in linear chains or binary-branching trees, and most notably, patterns able to reproduce themselves, duplicating their number at each generation.
An explanatory model for the emergence of evolvable units must display emerging structures that (1) preserve themselves in time (2) self-reproduce and (3) tolerate a certain amount of variation when reproducing. To tackle this challenge, here we introduce Combinatory Chemistry, an Algorithmic Artificial Chemistry based on a minimalistic computational paradigm named Combinatory Logic. The dynamics of this system comprise very few rules, it is initialised with an elementary tabula rasa state, and features conservation laws replicating natural resource constraints. Our experiments show that a single run of this dynamical system with no external intervention discovers a wide range of emergent patterns . All these structures rely on acquiring basic constituents from the environment and decomposing them in a process that is remarkably similar to biological metabolisms. These patterns include autopoietic structures that maintain URLanisation, recursive ones that grow in linear chains or binary-branching trees, and most notably, patterns able to reproduce themselves, duplicating their number at each generation.
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Researching the conditions
An explanatory model
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life -- not necessarily as it is, but as it could be -- is one of the main goals of Artificial Life. Answering this question requires a model that can first explain the emergence of evolvable units , namely,
evolvable units must display emerging
D
can
R
simple
minimalistic
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initialized
initialised
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with no external intervention
D
with no external intervention
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involve
include