http://programmer.ie/tags/digital-substrate/ Recent content in Digital Substrate on Programmer.ie: Modern AI programming Hugo en-us Tue, 11 Aug 2026 14:58:00 +0100 http://programmer.ie/books/digital-life/09-dont-build-an-animal/ Tue, 11 Aug 2026 14:58:00 +0100 http://programmer.ie/books/digital-life/09-dont-build-an-animal/ <h1 id="dont-build-an-animal">Don&rsquo;t Build an Animal</h1> <p>We almost made a serious mistake.</p> <p>After seven chapters of experiments, it would be very easy to write down a list like this:</p> <div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-text" data-lang="text"><span style="display:flex;"><span>boundary </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>resources </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>self-maintenance </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>damage tolerance </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>regeneration </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>memory </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>reproduction </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>inheritance </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>variation </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>selection </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>learning </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>finite lifetime </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>lineage </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>evolution </span></span></code></pre></div><p>Then say:</p> <blockquote> <p>Build all of those and we will have digital life.</p></blockquote> <p>It sounds rigorous.<br> We could turn every property into a test.<br> We could build a large simulation.<br> We could create <code>class Organism</code> and give it <code>energy</code>, <code>memory</code>, <code>genome</code>, <code>age</code>, <code>children</code>.</p>