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Fri Aug 17 00:34:29 EDT 2007
inorganic, interstellar "life"
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The following article talks about plasma interacting in ways that
would normally be observed in organic life forms. The more sto-
ries I see involving molecular dynamics, the more I like that
field. I see a lot of similarities between it and the areas of
computer science in which I am interested.
I really like the notion that local rules governing the interac-
tion of many discrete particles give rise to complex emergent be-
haviors. It seems to me that the field of molecular dynamics is
one of the best places to see how discrete objects operating un-
der local rules can give rise to complex and seemingly global
phenomenon. I've seen some pretty cool animations done using a
program called NAMD that illustrated how some pretty "intelli-
gent" behavior can arise out of a bunch of molecules interacting
with one another.
I know it is not right to dismiss chemistry as the basis behind
these "simple rules" of interaction, but I can't help but gener-
alize past the actual mechanisms that give rise to the rules
themselves. That, and I don't know a lick about chemistry :).
Article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070814150630.htm
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