[net.space] re self-replicating machine program mutation

cjh@CCA-UNIX@sri-unix (10/22/82)

   This is true of most biological mutations; the theories describing means
of evolution all require a statistical population in which most mutations
are either trivial or failures, or else there is enough genetic variation in
the population as a whole that in a crisis one tail of the curve will survive
whatever wipes out the other tail and maybe the center as well. Given that
the programs would presumably be identical initially, the incidence of
constructive mutation should (I think) be small---but over the time frame
we're talking about, attempting to predict what would happen is foolish.