REM@MIT-MC@sri-unix (10/20/82)
From: Robert Elton Maas <REM at MIT-MC> I categoricaly reject your claim that if one builds self-replicating robots and sets them loose on the Universe, all of them carefully programed and checksummed etc., that you'll inhibit mutation/evolution in these creatures. If anything can go wrong it will! Haven't you learned that? There's a cost associated with error-correcting codes. So if some machine manages to turn off its error-correcting code via something breaking (a bit switched, a JSR instruction changed to a NOP by accident, whatever) it'll have a slight advantage in surviving. So the population of non-error-protected machines will grow slightly. One of them will suffer a more serious mutation, that offers a true advantage, and suddenly a popuolation explosion of mutants will take over the galaxy. I don't believe the pressure of evolution can be stopped by a one-time careful design of a replicating form. *any* replicating form set loose in a big enough environment will eventually evolve. Even if you have police robots going around checking each robot to verify correct operatin of checksum codes, there are enough places to hide in the galaxy that evolution can escape detection long enough to take over. <opinion of REM>