We see this second purpose, its “heuristic” or discovery function, as especially productive for biology. In this article we explore the merits for these purposes of a simulation game called “Life” by its creator, John Conway, “the Game of Life” by others.
They provide judgment on the strengths of competing hypotheses, and generate unexpected or unsuspected possibilities for biologists to study and prove empirically. In recent times, computer simulations have played an increasingly important role in biology, in testing hypotheses and generating new ones. We use the game to explore issues in symbiopoiesis and evo-devo, where we explore a fractal hypothesis: that self-similarity exists at different levels (cells, organisms, ecological communities) as a result of homologous interactions of two as processes modeled in the Game of Life We show the value of computer simulations to experiment with and propose generalizations of broader scope with novel testable predictions. We look for similarities and differences between two epigenetic models, by Turing and Edelman, as they are realized in Game of Life objects. We show that Conway's organization of rules reflects the epigenetic principle, that genetic action and developmental processes are inseparable dimensions of a single biological system, analogous to the integration processes in symbiopoiesis. We apply it to other biological processes, including symbiopoiesis.
This game was designed to explore the evolution of ecological communities. Conway's Game of Life has been widely used for this purpose. Cellular automatons and computer simulation games are widely used as heuristic devices in biology, to explore implications and consequences of specific theories.
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