Synthetic Life Accomplished!!

[Jasper]

Well, when code incorporates new information it could be said to grow.

I could accept that one.

Oh, and a thought. I'd like to see this done with a eukaryote. Not just for the nuclear DNA, but for the mitochondrial DNA. But, since Venter's goal is to go further and create fully synthetic life, I doubt this is the next thing he'll work on. I think it's much more likely he'll work on making synthetic versions of other cellular systems for prokaryotes.

By extension, when a program breaks down new information and puts it back together in sensible ways, it could be said to metabolize.

/Agree on second point.  That would be really cool.  Synthetic, scratchbuilt life forms made to spec would be really cool.  They could be used to create novel materials, the way abalone uses chalk to make mother of pearl.

[Vene]

You'd need excretion of some sort, not just uptake.

[Jasper]

GIGO. 

[Vene]

Not really the same, the uptake needs to be used to maintain the organism, the waste products are results of the process to maintain the organism as well as the removal of what is in excess (like, with urine, a fair bit of the waste are various salts so there's not too much in the bloodstream).

[Jasper]

Well, if we're thinking about this seriously, I'll give a serious answer.  When a program kills threads or purges its memory, it could be said to purge it's waste matter.

[Requia ☣]

Well, if we're thinking about this seriously, I'll give a serious answer.  When a program kills threads or purges its memory, it could be said to purge it's waste matter.

The garbage collection process.

[Jasper]

Well, if we're thinking about this seriously, I'll give a serious answer.  When a program kills threads or purges its memory, it could be said to purge it's waste matter.

The garbage collection process.

That's what I was trying to think of, yes.

[Vene]

Well, if we're thinking about this seriously, I'll give a serious answer.  When a program kills threads or purges its memory, it could be said to purge it's waste matter.

Okay, because I don't know as much about computers, I will now ask a question. The thread and memory, is this a part of the code? Would it be considered a part of the virtual organism? And would it be something necessary to do to maintain its existence or is this just something you could make it do because you can make it do it?

[Jasper]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garbage_collection_(computer_science)

tl;dr it's important.

[Vene]

But, will the virtual organism die if you don't do it?

Edit: Just so we're clear, to qualify, it would have to take in something, use it to build and repair itself, and remove waste and if the virtual organism doesn't do any of these steps, it would have to die.

[Jasper]

Not sure what would happen to it, but probably nothing good.

It would take in information, break it down, recompile it in useful ways, and add it to itself.  The garbage collection process excretes "waste".  If it needed repairing of some kind, it would probably happen as a separate process.

...Isn't this thread about synthetic physical DNA?  Maybe this virtual life discussion should be split off.

[Vene]

Okay, that does sound like it matches metabolism fairly well. But, I still wonder, can you starve it? Not just so that it's programmed to stop working when it fails to get information, but where that's an innate part of its being, where the constant uptake of information is required for it to survive.

As for a thread split, not sure. This is still discussing synthetic life, but I'm not opposed to one.

[Jasper]

Well, any program like this would run on a computer, so...  It probably needs electricity the way we need air.

ETA: We have a host of physiological needs and conditions ranging from temperature to gravity and all that.  A computer program has some too.

[Vene]

A computer doesn't die without electricity, so I'm not sure that one really works. After all, the power blinks, and you can start it back up without issue. And a virtual organism, is that the hardware or the software? From what we've been discussing, I had the impression we were speaking about the software.

[Jasper]

Murky territory.  A program is pure information.  If your bodily organism could be wholly expressed in terms of it's processes and interactions as pure information, and run as a simulation in realtime, would it still be alive?