Basic reproductive architectures


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I know of one architecture whereby a system can
completely reproduce itself, and it has a known capacity
run amok.

The basic architecture is that the system contains some
form of data storage that contains a description of the
complete system. To reproduce the complete system, the
data is processed twice, once as code, to build the
working machinery of the new system, and once as data,
to produce a copy of the data in the original form for
the new system.

Thus for example, DNA is copied to produce identical
DNA, and also copied to produce RNA which is then
processed to produce ... eventually producing proteins.

Now suppose we want nanoassemblers to dismantle some
random trash we have lying around, and produce something
useful, say a pair of gloves. Since a pair of gloves is
a fair bit larger than a nanoassembler, to do this in a
reasonable time, our original nanoassembler must produce
many copies of itself. Suppose it forgets that it is
supposed to eventually stop producing copies of itself
and switch to producing a pair of gloves?

Now I would feel a lot more comfortable if a
nanoassembler could not independently produce a copy of
itself - it just follows orders to produce whatever,
which might be a copy of itself - it is dependent on the
network for instructions as to what to do. So how do we
imagine a network centric reproductive system, where the
network is the computer, and the network is inherently
resistant to viruses? If the network centric system is
just the same thing on a larger scale, we are back to
square one. Of course if the network as a whole is the
thing to be reproduced, it is acceptable for it to
ordinarily require human intervention each reproductive
event, like an operating install that requires extensive
human configuration, which would be intolerable if the
reproductive event was producing nanocomponents.

Is there some architecture that is inherently safer than
parsing the data twice, once as data to be copied, once
as code to be executed? Is, indeed, there any
architecture that is not logically equivalent to parsing
the data twice?

--digsig
James A. Donald
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WMWI5FcooQIy9Y2Q4CxjmNXEVw/X5w9MlSiMgfJq
4YX7wzslEDeyhnvKe+CXfQ+SgWOnAOi8BDmBsiu4w


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http://www.jim.com

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