The ultimate future of Artificial Life: Towards Artificial Cosmogenesis

1. The ultimate future of Artificial Life: Towards Artificial Cosmogenesis Clément Vidal Vrije Universiteit Brussel Centrum Leo Apostel (CLEA) Evolution, Complexity and Cognition (ECCO) http://clement.vidal.philosophons.com

2. Outline • Simulating an entire universe • Increase of computational resources • Bridging physical, biological and cultural evolution • Replaying the « tape of the universe » • Simulation or realization? • Cosmic perspective • Heat death problem • Philosophical approach • From Cosmological Natural Selection to Cosmological Artificial Selection.

3. Introduction

4. Introduction • Cosmic evolution gave rise to living organisms capable of reverse engineering the process that gave rise to them. • What is the future of ALife (and generally simulations in science) considering a cosmological time-scale?

5. Simulating an entire universe Increase of computational resources Bridging physical, biological and cultural evolution Replaying the « tape of the universe » Simulation or realization?

6. Externalization of memory Writing Externalization of computing Computing devices Moore’s law the number of transistors doubles every 18 months on a single microprocessor Increase in processing speed and memory capacity Limit : black hole “computer” (Lloyd 2000, Kurzweil 2006) Increase of computational resources

7. More general trend • Chaisson (2001, 2003) thermodynamically grounded quantitative metric for complex systems. • Free energy rate density(noted Φm) • rate at which free energy transits in a complex system of a given mass. • Dimension: energy per time per mass (erg s-1 g-1)

9. Bridging physical, biological and cultural evolution • First challenge for ALife • digital universe simulating this rise of levels of complexity in the physical, biological, and cultural realms. (conceptual and methodological problems here). • In short, this is the challenge of simulating an entire universe.

10. Replaying the « tape of the universe » • “what would remain the same if the tape of the universe were replayed?”Paraphrasing (Gould 1990) • Research program for the fine-tuning problem in cosmology • if any of a number of parameters, fundamental constants in physics and also initial conditions in cosmology were slightly different, no complexity of any sort would come into existence

11. Simulation or realization? "The intent of this work is to synthesize rather than simulate life." Thomas (Ray 1992, 372) • Traditional-like simulations • OUR real-world is modelled • Better predictions/understanding • ALife-like simulations • A new digital-world is created and explored • Is it realization? Open debate. (Pattee 1995).

13. Cosmic perspective Heat death problem Philosophical approach From Cosmological Natural Selection to Cosmological Artificial Selection.

14. The heat death problem (HD) • Second law of thermodynamics • the entropy of an isolated system will tend to increase over time • Application to the universe • the universe will irreversibly go towards a state of maximum entropy. Helmholtz in 1854. • No possibility of infinite continuation of life. • Field of physical eschatology (Ćirković 2003)

15. Darwin’s view “ Believing as I do that man in the distant future will be a far more perfect creature than he now is, it is an intolerable thought that he and all other sentient beings are doomed to complete annihilation after such long-continued slow progress” (Darwin 1887, 70).

16. Philosophical approach • What is the ultimate fate of humanity and the universe in the very distant future? • speculative philosophical approach (Broad 1924); (Vidal 2007) for a method. • No unambiguous empirical or experimental support • ambitious question, the proposed answer can only be tentative and speculative.

17. From Cosmological Natural Selection to Cosmological Artificial Selection. • Cosmological natural selection (CNS) as an attempt to solve the fine-tuning problem • VARIATION: Black holes give birth to new universes by producing the equivalent of a Big Bang, which produces a baby universe with slightly different physical laws and constants. • SELECTION: The differential success in self-reproduction of universes via their black holes.

18. Limitations of Smolin’s theory • Life’s role in the universe is incidental. • The physical laws aren’t fine-tuned to maximize black hole production. (Rees 1997, p251), quoted in (Gardner 2003, p84) • No mechanism of heredity. (Gardner 2003, p84)

19. Cosmological Artificial Selection • VARIATION: Different simulations of entire universes. • SELECTION: Artificial selection of the suitable simulated universes.

20. From simulation to realization(very speculative topic!) • Realization is here the reproduction of the universe. • Black holes are good candidates for universe reproduction (ultimate computing device)

21. Evolutionary Developmental Universe • Example: Body / Germline analogy (Smart 2008) • Biology: The body dies, not the germline (DNA), which is passed on to the offspring. • Cosmology: the universe dies (HD), not its germline (“laws of nature”) which are • First deciphered by intelligent life (phenomenon of science) • Then passed on via intelligent life to an offspring universe. • Much more to explore…

22. Thank you for your attention ! Questions are welcome now or later clement.vidal@philosophons.com

23. Exploring Chaisson’s curve Big Bang data U curve? EDU analogy? Moore’s law Predict artificial cosmogenesis? Contact me if interested in these projects!  Evo Devo Universe Research community Conference in Paris 8-9 October 2008 Discussion www.evodevouniverse.com

24. Bibliography • Broad, C. D. 1924. Critical and Speculative Philosophy. Contemporary British philosophy: Personal statements: 75-100. http://www.ditext.com/broad/csp.html. • Chaisson, E. J. 2001. Cosmic Evolution: The Rise of Complexity in Nature. Harvard University Press, October 15. • ---. 2003. A unifying concept for astrobiology. International Journal of Astrobiology 2, no. 02: 91-101. http://www.tufts.edu/as/wright_center/eric/reprints/unifying_concept_astrobio.pdf. • Ćirković, M. M. 2003. Resource Letter: PEs-1: Physical eschatology. American Journal of Physics 71: 122. http://www.aob.bg.ac.yu/~mcirkovic/Cirkovic03_RESOURCE_LETTER.pdf. • Darwin, Charles. 1887. The Autobiography of Charles Darwin. Barnes & NoblePublishing (2005). • Gardner, J. N. 2003. Biocosm. The New Scientific Theory of Evolution: Intelligent Life is the Architect of the Universe. Inner Ocean Publishing. • Kurzweil, R. 2006. The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. Penguin Books. • Lloyd, S. 2000. Ultimate physical limits to computation. Nature 406: 1047-1054. http://www.hep.princeton.edu/~mcdonald/examples/QM/lloyd_nature_406_1047_00.pdf. • Pattee, H. H. 1995. Artificial Life Needs a Real Epistemology. Advances in Artificial Life: Third European Conference on Artificial Life, Granada, Spain, June 4-6, 1995: Proceedings. http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/rd/24547766%2C524075%2C1%2C0.25%2CDownload/http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/cache/papers/cs/12112/http:zSzzSzwww.ssie.binghamton.eduzSzpatteezSzaepistem.pdf/pattee95artificial.pdf. • Rees, M. J. 1997. Before the Beginning: Our Universe and Others. Perseus Books. • Smart, John. 2008. Evo Devo Universe? A Framework for Speculations on Cosmic Culture. In Cosmos and Culture, ed. S. J. Dick. To appear. • Vidal, Clement. 2007. An Enduring Philosophical Agenda. Worldview Construction as a Philosophical Method. Submitted for publication (February). http://cogprints.org/6048/.