9 Conclusion
8 Experiment 2
8.5 Run 2-5
There is substantial variation among the five runs comprising experiment 2. In runs 3 and 5, the initial entity effectively fails completely to establish a closed, autopoietic, reaction network. However, in runs 1, 2 and 4, an autopoietic reaction network is established, and a succession of successful repair episodes occurs. In runs 1 and 4 a morphology becomes established which is apparently particularly robust, persisting in each case for approximately 1000 time steps of the model.
The work reported here has not involved any extensive or comprehensive investigation of variations in the various reaction rate and mobility parameters available in the SCL model. It might well be possible to find combinations of parameter settings in which the establishment and maintenance of autopoietic reaction networks is more robust, and the autopoietic entities would thus be more stable and longer lived. However, the basic results of experiment 2 clearly show that this model can exhibit persistent, self repairing, autopoietic reaction networks, in the form originally described by Varela et al. [8]
Given that the only difference between experiment 1 and experiment 2 is the (re-)introduction of the chain-based bond inhibition interaction, it seems reasonable to conclude that this phenomenon of computational autopoiesis relies critically on the presence of this interaction.
9 Conclusion
8 Experiment 2
8.5 Run 2-5
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Timestamp: Wed Feb 5 21:58:53 GMT 1997