The genome is software and evolution is a software developer

TL;DR

This paper conceptualizes the genome as software and evolution as a software development process, proposing genetic programming as a comprehensive framework for understanding evolutionary mechanisms.

Contribution

It introduces a novel perspective that evolution can be modeled as software development, unifying theories and providing a basis for scientific testing.

Findings

Genetic programming offers a robust framework for evolutionary theory

Evolution can be understood as a software development process

The approach facilitates scientific predictions and falsification

Abstract

The genome is software because it a set of verbal instructions for a programmable computer, the ribosome. The theory of evolution now reads: evolution is the software developer responsible for the existence of the genome. We claim that this setting, whose official name is genetic programming, is necessary and sufficient to discuss all important questions about evolution. A great effort has been made to pass from wording to science, i.e., from naive theories to robust models to predictions to testing for falsification.