Blaise Agüera y Arcas: random 64-byte tapes spontaneously evolve self-copying programs
Machine Learning Street Talk · youtube · 2026-11-11
In a Machine Learning Street Talk clip, Blaise Agüera y Arcas describes his BFF artificial-life experiment: start with 1,024 tapes of 64 random bytes each, pluck two at random, join them end to end, run them, pull them apart, and repeat — that's the entire setup. Complex programs that copy themselves and each other emerge from pure randomness: "emergence of life in this very functional minimal sense."
More from Fun
- EE jokes about AI progress chart: training compute growing 10.6 dB per year — jwt0625 · 2026-11-11
- Researcher vibe-codes a tool to geolocate aircraft via doppler-shifted propeller noise — IgorCarron · 2026-11-11
- Satire of the AI-agency guru bubble: one-person company run by a TikTok-scripted 21-year-old — g3off_who · 2026-11-11
- The three types of academic feedback, explained via game dialogue options — NC_Renic · 2026-11-11
- 'Show technique, then emotion': open-ended prompt gets Fable 5.2 to make a twist-ending showcase video — FinanceYF5 · 2026-11-11
- Researcher jokes what his group would look like if he approved every PhD/intern request — wandedob · 2026-11-11