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This is the basic mechanism to for complexity to unfold: adversarial arms race.

How parasites expand the computational landscape of life

by Luís Seoane and Ricard Solé

arxiv.org/abs/1910.14339

"host-parasite co-evolution can ignite an explosive race of increasing complexity ..."

How Turing parasites expand the computational landscape of digital life

Why are living systems complex? Why does the biosphere contain living beings with complexity features beyond those of the simplest replicators? What kind of evolutionary pressures result in more complex life forms? These are key questions that pervade the problem of how complexity arises in evolution. One particular way of tackling this is grounded in an algorithmic description of life: living organisms can be seen as systems that extract and process information from their surroundings in order to reduce uncertainty. Here we take this computational approach using a simple bit string model of coevolving agents and their parasites. While agents try to predict their worlds, parasites do the same with their hosts. The result of this process is that, in order to escape their parasites, the host agents expand their computational complexity despite the cost of maintaining it. This, in turn, is followed by increasingly complex parasitic counterparts. Such arms races display several qualitative phases, from monotonous to punctuated evolution or even ecological collapse. Our minimal model illustrates the relevance of parasites in providing an active mechanism for expanding living complexity beyond simple replicators, suggesting that parasitic agents are likely to be a major evolutionary driver for biological complexity.

arxiv.org
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Cryptographic Nature

by David Krakauer, 2015

„… various forms of regularized randomness, historically encrypt adaptive dynamics.“

arxiv.org/abs/1505.01744v1

@muppeth It is much more than an OS. It is a complete ecosystem. You can buy phones off the shelf running it.

@muppeth why should they access Google Play at all? they have replicated all infrastructure, e.cloud services including an app store.

@muppeth /e/ is completely plugged off from Google. It offers a viable alternative now, even for people who lack the skill to do stuff themselves. But I see your point and the value of your effort.

@muppeth Why dismiss the Android OSS part? I am quite happy with initiatives like /e/OS. There will be no scale without competitive commercial products.

@duncanhart
I will have to wait 4 weeks to get it, then I have to put on the new ROM. Will be likely used by my daughter.
As soon as I have collected some experience, I will post it.

@duncanhart
Looks good - love the physical switches. I discovered a bargain option and got a new Siemens phone with similar specs at amazon.de for about USD 140 = EUR 115, which is ready for /e/OS.

@duncanhart Neither me. But ignoring it is not helpful either. I won't get rid of my business phone, but I will test drive alternatives on personal family devices. It is not so much a problem on a personal, but it is not a good development on societal level. The asymmetry of information is too big.

Why is leaving the Google and Apple mobile ecosystem a thing?

Because, even if you opt out of whatever the OS offers, you are still leaking data to them at an unacceptable rate.

scss.tcd.ie/doug.leith/apple_g

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