Re: Fibonacci

On Nov 25, 2007 11:00 PM, Matt Dick <[email protected]> wrote:
> Gerald,
>
> Having it on the mailing list is great.
>
> You're quite right about it making more sense that each bar has the
> same genetics.
>
> The question then becomes, how does a tensegrity "give birth" to
> another, such that a mutation can propagate through generations?

i don't see much of a problem in how a tensegrity gives birth, because
it's all synthetic anyway, but i'm interested in when the signals to
stop growing and become adult can be part of the language, so more
_when_ will it give birth.

i'm thinking about collaboration a lot.  like the best way to create a
new bar is to put it perpendicular to two existing bars and connect it
to them so it's suspended somewhere nearby (not crossing).  so it's as
if two bars must both have decided independently that they are ready
to bring about a new one, and because they are interconnected, they
can do it.  requiring that two agree would make it more rare, which is
good.

it's as if bars should read the genome code and switch froms state to
state on the basis of what comes in.  it may be fairly rare to go into
"local replicate" state, and since two adjacent bars (cable connected)
would have to simultaneously get into that state it'll be even more
rare.

> > code.   once the adult has emerged and has won in competition with
> > others does the code get transferred to new tensegrities that have yet
> > to grow, and then indeed with a mutation.  in fact some kind of
> > recombination wouldn't be hard to realize either with this
> > binary-based code.
>
> At some stage there could be a sexual reproduction as well, but that's
> some distance away.

glad you appreciate that.  whew.  :)

>
> > so how about this:  suppose a new bar grows (probably best done as a
> > collaboration between two existing bars so its position and
> > orientation can be fairly unambiguous: perpendicular to both, nearby)
> > and inherits the body's genome.  i guess it should start "reading" the
> > genome from the beginning, despite the fact that its neighbors are
> > further along, or should it continue reading, or even go halfway back
> > to the beginning or something?
>
> Well I envision a system whereby a growing bar needs to read the
> genome in order to grow.  In other words the genome really is an
> instruction set.  So each new bar uses its genome to become what it
> needs to become.

i like this state idea.  there could be a state describing a kind of
rate of growth.  you might grow quickly or slowly and then get bumped
into the reproductive state for a short while, potentially
collaborating with a neighbor to introduce a new bar.

maybe what your state becomes could depend on the state of your
neighbors too, because then you could see things like the outside
layers growing (like buds) and the inside layers not sprouting.

somehow i think making use of the interconnectedness might bring the
right kind of stability to balance the variability of genome
sequences.

-- 
Gerald de Jong
[email protected]
http://www.groovyactors.org
http://www.darwinathome.org

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