Digital Biology: A New Kind of Nature - Tapa dura

Imagine a future world where computers can create universes - digital environments made from binary ones and zeros. Imagine that within these universes there exist biological forms that reproduce, grow and think. Imagine plant-like forms, ant colonies, immune systems and brains, all adapting, evolving and getting better at solving problems. Imagine if our computers became greenhouses for a new kind of nature. Just think what digital biology could do for us. Perhaps it could evolve new designs for us, think up ways to detect fraud using digital neurons, or solve scheduling problems with ants. Perhaps it could create music from the patterns of growth of digital seashells, or allow computers to become creative and inventive. Now stop imagining...

Peter Bentley is a research fellow at UCL and and the founder of the growing field of Creative Evolutionary Design. He regularly speaks to international audiences of academics, government officials and businessmen, and his work on using computers to evolve music is being filmed for a television documentary.