AL@WWW

Why is it important to use the Internet to study and create artificial lives in 3D ?
Until recently there were only three actual forms taken by computer-designed AL creations. They were as follows:

1) An AL built using 2D graphics. Although its on-screen motion is interactive and in real-time, this is a limited form of life, expressed in dots or polygons, with information available only about its location and status.

2) An AL animation for VTR, whose motion is simulated using high-end, high-speed computers and whose calculations use realistic 3D computer graphic software. Great as it looks on screen, what is shown is only a reproduction of already-completed actions.

During 1988 and 1989, I used this form to produce for NHK "The War: Macrophages vs. Bacteria" (to be used in the TV series, "Universe Within"), and its advanced version, "VioMechaWars." (to be shown at SIGGRAPH '89) The latter is an animation of two types of biomechanic robots fighting each other in simulated battles. However, realized that these worlds, programmed within the confines a personal computer, were soon to be forgotten, even by myself.

3) An 3D-interactive AL made possible by the use of a special high-end computer. The only way to see this AL is to go to the place where the facility is provided, so this form is not generally available for the public access.

However, the Internet environment, VRML with its exclusive VRML browsers, Java, and JavaScript - 3D data, programming languages, 3D browsers, and GUI have all emerged as commonly available Internet tools. This means that individually created ALs can be instantly reproduced anywhere in the world on the same platform. This also offers exciting potential for the joint development of ALs over the Internet.

Why is it important to three-dimensionalize an AL?
Firstly, a 3D model creates a strong impact that leaves lasting impression. Powerful images will be the driving force in promoting ALs to the general public.
Secondly, the motions and shapes made possible by a 3D model can enable more sophisticated forms of expression and encourage detailed study, which have been neglected in the use of 2D models.

ALs and Evolution

How to achieve the great leap of evolution with ALs?
There are two evolutionary theories of life that can be used to consider this question. One is the theory of symbiosis and cooperation in evolution, and the other is the theory of the intervention of retroviruses in evolution.

1) THEORY OF SYMBIOSIS AND COOPERATION IN EVOLUTION
This theory was first advanced by the American biologist, Lynn Margulis, at the end of the 1960s. According to the theory, when the procaryotes evolved into eucaryotes, some procaryotes were assembled to form the small organs respectively.
For example, respiratory cells were absorbed by the host protoplasm to become mitochondria, photosynthetic cells became chloroplasts, and spiral-shaped spirochetes became the waving, hair- shaped cilia and flagella.

2) THEORY OF THE INTERVENTION OF RETROVIRUSES IN EVOLUTION
This theory was first presented by Prof. Hideomi Nakahara of Yamanashi Medical University in 1971.
Retroviruses (such as the AIDS virus) are made of RNA (ribonucleic acid) and reproduce by attaching their own genes to those of their host. During the process, retroviruses occasionally transfer genes of other organisms, peeling off a part of a gene and passing it to another. According to the theory, this has played a great role in the process of evolution.
Hosting a retrovirus is a kind of infection. However, some retrovirus infections might have occurred to the hosts' advantage, using in the same mechanism that gene treatment processes use.
In order to trigger evolution, a considerable population of the same species should appear at once. For example, if a single winged lizard was born as a result of mutation, it could not produce the next generation independently. However, there may have been a time when retrovirus-infected lizards with the "fledging disease" were born one after another.

Common to both theories are these two points: that a certain intervening mechanism was the key to combining complete, separate life forms together; and that, according to each theory, evolution was a risky, and almost fatal strategy.
The question then arises whether it is possible for the Internet to take up the role of a retrovirus, the intervening mechanism of evolution?

Proposal: AL in the Multi-User World

I would like to establish an important rule for this "World" that stems from the risk factor associated with evolution. An AL must be freed of copyright once it enters the "World." That is, anyone should be allowed to remodel your program or cut and splice it in order to create a new AL.
Abandoning copyright is certainly an anarchic situation, and may even mean the death or decay of your own creation. However, it could also serves as the driving force for truly dynamic AL evolution.

Success will begin once we hit upon a program that works as efficiently as DNA. There after the evolutionary process will continue naturally, using the DNA as the black-box mechanism.

30 October, 1998

All images in this page copyright, 1998 Ryoichiro Debuchi