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Your DNA has most of the information needed to make you you. The information is encoded through four different chemicals that act as a sort of alphabet, spelling out the language of life. In the 1960/s a similar approach was adopted to solve complex problems.
Here’s a tutorial on genetic algorithms and how to use them.
A “steampunk computer,” is apparently a style of home or work station. I kind of want one, but… When I think “steampunk” I think actual steam. Or tech on that level, hugely complex, and able to magickly work somehow, instead of falling apart, seizing up and exploding.
I think I can build one.
Whirring, clunking, banging and hissing—let’s skip all that newfangled electricity, and design a mechanical computer.
I’m not doing this in the garage; I’m doing this in your head. Things in the garage have an unfortunate tendency to fall apart, seize up and explode.
I’d like to walk through how a computer computes. Partly because I’ve always wanted to read something like this, and partly because I won’t really have it figured out until I’ve walked through it.
If you can add and subtract, you have all the math you’ll need.
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In 1963, a couple of students were working in a wind-tunnel, attempting to find a way to figure out how to design surfaces to produce a given airflow. That was, and still is, a difficult problem. There are no simple formula. They decided to see if they could use the power of evolution to solve the problem, and it worked.
Here’s a link to the relevant section of “A Hitchhiker’s guide to Evolutionary Computation.”
I mentioned evolutionary programming in this episode, but don’t provide much detail. For those who are interested, here’s a link that provides an introduction to the topic.
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It took our universe between 13 and 14 billion years to make minds like our own. It took our planet 4.54 billion years, and life between 3 and 4 billion. What if we took a process we know can produce minds, namely evolution, and simulated it. Maybe, if we could zero in on the right factors, we could manage to create something like a mind in much less time.
Here’s a link to a documentary on the evolution of our species.
Here’s a link to a newsgroup FAQ that was one of the first references I found on the subject of simulating evolution in order to solve problems. It’s still there, and it’s still good.
A Hitchhikers Guide to Evolutionary Computation
As most methods of simulating evolution run on computers, I’ve started a series of blog posts on how computers compute. Here’s a link to the first of two whole posts that have been written to date.
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Large complex multicellular life and simple single celled creatures have been evolving together. Each species requires an environment similar to the one in which it evolved in order to grow and develop normally. That includes the other creatures that have been evolving along with it. Today, we talk about how mice, deprived of their usual microbial symbiotes, show changes in their behavior as adults—changes that cannot be reversed.
Here’s the paper on the experiment and the results.
Normal gut microbiota modulates brain development and behavior
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It’s strange but true. A microscopic single celled organism can change the behavior of animals that it infects. From a snail that climbs instead of hiding below, to rabies, to a disease that causes rodents to lose their fear of cats; behavior can be changed by a sickness to make it more likely that the disease will spread.
Here are some articles on toxoplasmosis, which can cause rats and mice to become unafraid of, and even become attracted to, cats.
The Parasite That Makes a Rat Love a Cat
Mind-Bending Parasite Permanently Quells Cat Fear in Mice
This tiny brain parasite seems to make rodents braver—and it likes humans, too
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In the previous post, I talked very briefly about a one instruction set computer. I didn’t go into details because I hadn’t had a chance to play with one yet. Well, I’ve played with it, and it isn’t as difficult as I was making it.
The one command I’m playing with is called subleq. That short for, “subtract and branch if less than or equal to 0.” Don’t worry if this doesn’t make sense yet; I’ll explain in painful detail in future posts.
B=A-b
If B<=0 jump to address c
Else go to next line
Commands and numbers are stored in the same array. All commands consist of three addresses. When you first start, the three address command is stored in addresses 0, 1, 2.
In address 0, another address is stored. A is first set to be equal to the value stored in the address pointed to in address 0.
B is set to be the value stored in the address stored in address 1.
C is set to be the address stored at address 2.
B is set to be equal to B-A, and then stored in the address pointed to at address 1.
If B isn’t a positive number, if it is zero or a negative number, the program jumps to C—the address stored in address 2.
Here’s where I screwed up. Somehow, I got it in my head that if B was a positive number, one or more, the program should do the same set of actions, but now using addresses 2, 3, 4. What should happen, is that the program repeats, but using addresses 3, 4, 5.
I was using a version of subleq I got from a blog post by Nicola Malizia. It wasn’t acting the way I thought, so his nice clean code got scrambled up as I put in various flags and messages to figure out why. Eventually I found what I thought was a bug. I “fixed” it. The only trouble was, it wasn’t a bug. the way I thought it should act was wrong.
The way it really should act makes so much more sense. things like an unconditional branch are so simple now.
The only bug was in my brain!
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Symbiosis between animals and bacteria is very common. In some cases, animals will not develop fully without their microscopic partners—sometimes, they can’t even reproduce.
Here’s a paper on the bobtail squid, and the light producing organ that doesn’t develop fully without the correct strain of bioluminescent bacteria.
Here are a couple of articles on parasitic wasps, and the effects on their reproduction caused by their microscopic hitchhikers.
Removing symbiotic Wolbachia bacteria specifically inhibits oogenesis in a parasitic wasp
Essential but unhelpful wasp Wolbachia
And here’s an article that talks about the link between animal behavior and their microbial symbiotes.
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Many life forms live in partnership with other organisms. The cooperative relationship is called symbiosis. Sometimes, one of the cooperating creatures lives inside of the other, even inside the cells. When one creature lives inside of another one that it cooperates with, it is called endosymbiosis. Today, we take a look at a few examples.
Here’s a review of endosymbiosis, with many examples.
Here’s a couple of articles about Salamanders and algae—the only known vertebrate case of endosymbiosis where the symbionts live within the vertebrate cells.
Algae that live inside the cells of salamanders are the first known vertebrate endosymbionts
Scientists Just Found a Completely New Kind of Symbiotic Relationship
Here are a couple of academic papers on the recently discovered cellular symbiosis between salamanders and algae.
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Today, we talk about another fast moving plant, called mimosa pudica, AKA. Shame plant, shy plant, touch me not, or the tickle me plant. This little plant will curl up its leaves when they are touched.
Here’s a video that shows the tickle me plant in action.
Mimosa Pudica – The Sensitive Plant
Here’s an article on growing and caring for mimosa pudica as a house plant.