> [!note] > My motivation with Yesod is rooted in the premise of Artificial Life as originally conceived: _an exploration of life as it could be_. What are the ways that life could be different? Some aspects are assumed the same in all possible "life" systems. Evolution, energy gathering and use, homeostasis of some kind, I'm interested in how life might look different-- different shapes, different behaviors. Or _not_. The opinion of Zoologist's guide to the Galaxy author XXX is that many of the factors that drove morphologies on Earth will be present on other worlds, and will therefore lead to similar outcomes. Yesod hopes to develop a small set of fundamental components that function together to allow [[Emergence]] of morphologies. Does bilateral symmetry usually emerge? Can some components be changed to yield other forms? Will forms emerge that look nothing like Earth-bound creatures? From a research perspective, # [[Morphogenesis]] > [!note] Life is just development with more steps. # Genotype ## Efficient representation common operations - expand genotype into morphology - traverse graph, starting at root, following edges - given node, get edges, given edge, get next node. - mutation - insert new node between two existing - remove edge - add node and two edges - sex - Key References [[Cope 2023]]