Programmable self-assembly: constructing global shape using biologically-inspired local interactions and origami mathematics
Anthills built to order: automating construction with artificial swarms
Anthills built to order: automating construction with artificial swarms
Facilitating evolutionary innovation by developmental modularity and variability
Proceedings of the 11th Annual conference on Genetic and evolutionary computation
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Finding ways to engineer morphogenesis in biological systems, to direct the development of a multicellular organism according to desired specifications, will require both high-level understanding of organizing principles in such systems and low-level understanding of how basic tools can be reliably implemented in real cells. Past work has assumed low-level capabilities appropriate to computing agents but not necessarily to biology. Here I discuss potential ways of implementing low-level primitives based on capabilities for which evidence exists in biological systems, with the goal of developing a basis for engineering developmental processes that will be realizable in wetware. I focus on the use of biologically realistic morphogen gradients to produce structures of desired size, provide positional information, and trigger genetic cascades that lead to the growth of more complex structures.