Self-Replicating and Self-Modifying Programs in Fraglets

Lidia Yamamoto; Daniel Schreckling; Thomas Meyer

2nd International ICST Conference on Bio-Inspired Models of Network, Information, and Computing Systems

Research Article

Self-Replicating and Self-Modifying Programs in Fraglets

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@INPROCEEDINGS{10.4108/ICST.BIONETICS2007.2446,
    author={Lidia Yamamoto and Daniel Schreckling and Thomas Meyer},
    title={Self-Replicating and Self-Modifying Programs in Fraglets},
    proceedings={2nd International ICST Conference on Bio-Inspired Models of Network, Information, and Computing Systems},
    proceedings_a={BIONETICS},
    year={2008},
    month={8},
    keywords={Artificial Chemical Computing  Quines  Self-Modifying Code  Self-Replication},
    doi={10.4108/ICST.BIONETICS2007.2446}
}

Lidia Yamamoto
Daniel Schreckling
Thomas Meyer
Year: 2008
Self-Replicating and Self-Modifying Programs in Fraglets
BIONETICS
ICST
DOI: 10.4108/ICST.BIONETICS2007.2446

Lidia Yamamoto¹^,*, Daniel Schreckling²^,*, Thomas Meyer¹^,*

1: Computer Science Department University of Basel Bernoullistrasse 16 CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland
2: Computer Science Department University of Hamburg Vogt-Koelln-Str. 30 D-22527 Hamburg, Germany

*Contact email: lidia.yamamoto@unibas.ch, schreckling@informatik.unihamburg._de, th.meyer@unibas.ch

Abstract

The inherently decentralized nature of artificial chemical computing models makes them particularly attractive for building bio-inspired software with self-organizing and emergent properties. Yet it is not straightforward to construct such chemical programs, either manually or automatically. We are exploring the potential of chemical programming models for automatic programming, in the context of autonomic environments where software must operate unsupervised for unlimited periods of time. We are enhancing the Fraglets chemical language to support intrinsic genetic programming, such that programs can replicate and modify themselves during execution. The Fraglets language was originally designed to express communication protocols. We first show a few extensions towards more generic computations, then show how selfreplicating and self-modifying programs can be created. This is a first step towards programs that can repair and optimize themselves in an autonomic way. We reveal a number of features and shortcomings of the language, suggesting fixes and future directions.

Keywords: Artificial Chemical Computing Quines Self-Modifying Code Self-Replication

Published: 2008-08-29
Modified: 2011-07-10

: http://dx.doi.org/10.4108/ICST.BIONETICS2007.2446