This is a fascinating example of *self-replication* and imperfect copying in living systems, and it directly resonates with principles of Electrodynamic Intelligence (EDI). Concepts like instruction copying and emergent complexity can be modeled and explored through EDI frameworks, providing a deeper understanding of adaptive and evolving systems.
Dorian Aur PS For those interested in a practical exploration of these ideas, there are resources that illustrate EDI in action and bridge these abstract biological concepts with computational models: https://dorianaur.gumroad.com/l/udtedn On Tue, Dec 16, 2025 at 6:20 PM Matt Mahoney <[email protected]> wrote: > Living organisms have the following properties that distinguish them > from non living. > 1. They reproduce. This implies that they carry the instructions for > creating copies of themselves that contain copies of the instructions. > 2. The instruction copying is not perfect, allowing them to evolve and > gain complexity. > > These properties can be reproduced in software. The first property in > pseudocode looks like this: > > Print the following twice, the second time in quotes. > "Print the following twice, the second time in quotes". > > An example of a program with both properties can be found in > https://mattmahoney.net/rsi.pdf > > On Tue, Dec 16, 2025 at 3:57 PM Dorian Aur <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > > Certain properties attributed to “biological intelligence” may instead > occur from substrate-independent physical dynamics. > > > > I’m exploring whether some core properties commonly attributed to > biological intelligence might instead reflect substrate-independent > physical dynamics, rather than biology > > > > Concretely, in neural-scale measurements, we can interpret certain > correlations as occuring from electrodynamic interactions that are not > specific to any living tissue, and which may not be fully captured by any > standard computational abstractions. > > > > Do you see a reason these dynamics must reduce to computation, and they > represent additional physical constraints relevant for AGI architectures? > > > > I have a short written summary, and a longer text/audio treatment for > those interested; I didn’t want to overload this list. > > > > Dorian Aur > > > > Artificial General Intelligence List / AGI / see discussions + > participants + delivery options Permalink > > -- > -- Matt Mahoney, [email protected] ------------------------------------------ Artificial General Intelligence List: AGI Permalink: https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/Tca9651e0e10920d5-M12b8ada5233b0e6c3ea60e32 Delivery options: https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/subscription
