Robust monomer-distribution biosignatures in evolving digital biota

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that evolving digital organisms leave a consistent and robust instruction distribution signature, which could serve as a biosignature for detecting life beyond Earth, resilient to various system changes.

Contribution

It introduces a novel digital biosignature based on instruction distribution anomalies that are robust across different evolutionary conditions.

Findings

Instruction abundance anomalies are consistent over many trials.

Signature remains stable despite changes in system parameters.

Potential as a non-Earth-centric life-diagnostic tool.

Abstract

Because organisms synthesize component molecules at rates that reflect those molecules' adaptive utility, we expect a population of biota to leave a distinctive chemical signature on their environment that is anomalous given the local (abiotic) chemistry. We observe the same effect in the distribution of computer instructions used by an evolving population of digital organisms, and characterize the robustness of the evolved signature with respect to a number of different changes in the system's physics. The observed instruction abundance anomaly has features that are consistent over a large number of evolutionary trials and alterations in system parameters, which makes it a candidate for a non-Earth-centric life-diagnostic