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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