249. Blaise Agüera y Arcas with Charles Mudede: What Is Life? Evolution as Computation

About this episode

Blaise Agüera y Arcas discusses the concept of life through the lens of computation, exploring its implications across various scientific fields.

Explaining how and why our world works the way it does touches on so many fields of science: biology, chemistry, physics, and, of course, technology. However, according to researcher Blaise Agüera y Arcas, computation should also be part of the understanding of life on all levels – and going back further than one might think. In What Is Life? Evolution as Computation, Agüera y Arcas uses computation as a means of examining the complexities of our own universe. Inspired by the work of quantum mechanics pioneer Erwin Schrödinger, he revisits the question that has showcased the divide between biology and physics: what is life? How can life and all its attendant complexities come to exist in a random universe, governed by simple laws, whose disorder only increases over time? What Is Life? aims to provide surprising answers, reframing core concepts of self-reproduction, complex growth, and symbiotic relationships as inherently computational. Agüera y Arcas draws on decades of theory and existing literature from figures like Alan Turing and John von Neumann, as well as recent endeavors in the field of artificial life. From evolution and symbiogenesis to thermodynamics and climate…

People in this episode

Host: Charles Mudede

Guest: Blaise Agüera y Arcas

Topics covered

• computation
• evolution
• life sciences
• quantum mechanics
• artificial life
• thermodynamics

Keywords

• computation
• evolution
• life
• quantum mechanics
• artificial life
• self-reproduction
• symbiotic relationships

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: What Is Life?, What Is Intelligence?

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