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Article: Complex questions: the new science of spontaneous order. (complexity theory)
- Article from:
- Reason
- Article date:
- January 1, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 Reason Foundation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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About a year ago Stephanie Forrest of the University of New Mexico and Terry Jones of the Santa Fe Institute - the nerve center of "complexity" research - were fooling around with ECHO, an artificial evolution program developed by Chris Langton, the father of "artificial life." Like most research in the emerging field of complexity, ECHO involves creating "digital organisms," small snippets of computer code equipped with instructions to help them survive and replicate in the silicon environment. When turned loose in cyberspace, these computer creatures act very much like living organisms. They can be programmed to compete for scarce resources, trade genes through sexual ...