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From: mwtilden@math.uwaterloo.ca (Mark W. Tilden)
Subject: Re: Proposed test for life
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Date: Wed, 16 Oct 1996 23:51:48 GMT
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In article <32630A99.7B7F@earthlink.net>,
Jeff Rutan  <jeffrutan@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
>Hey, all, I think we have stumbled onto something here!
>The ultimate test for life in ALife projects!
>
>Proposed Scoring Method for Evaluation of ALife Success:
>
>Count the number of people who are protesting your work, not because 
>it is a real danger to mankind, or because it is harming some other 
>creature or property, but because it challenges their fundamental 
>beliefs.

Ok.  We'll call it the "Rutan Test 1".  Unfortunately, this would mean
Howard Stern and Rush Lumbaugh are the only humans that could really be
considered "alive" (yeurch!).

"Rutan Test II" for Alife machines would be any artificial organism that 
can terrorize villagers regardless of the creators acedemic credibility.

Bad news for the villagers, but it would explain late-night infomercials.

Is all.

-- 
Mark W. Tilden.  "Gomi no Sensei des"   _    _    ________________________
P3, LANL, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA.   / \  / \  /________________________)
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