RD 3: AI-Driven Evolution
MP 3: Rules of Life
Biology is not the definition of life; it is merely one instance of it. We view biological life as a local solution to a universal challenge: how matter organises into systems that persist, adapt, and act. Our goal is to strip away the carbon-centric bias to uncover the minimal, fundamental principles that give rise to lifelike behaviour across any substrate.
The Rules of Life (MP 3) moves beyond biomimicry by building AI-driven experimental environments where life is not simulated but allowed to emerge in its native environment and explore alternative metabolisms and non-biological evolutionary pathways. Agency, intelligence, and adaptation arise, not as programmed features, but as emergent properties of intrinsic dynamics. This approach transforms artificial life into a rigorous testbed for a new “Universal Biology,” mapping the vast phase space of what life could be rather than just what it is.
The Rules of Life (MP 3) serves as the conceptual logic for our technological ecosystem. It defines the organisational boundaries and “software” that the Atom Printer (MP 2) uses to transition from building static objects to creating adaptive, lifelike materials. Simultaneously, these rules will be grounded in the emergent agency identified by the Atlas of Change (MP 1). By discovering the code that makes life possible, we aim to move toward a future where we can recognise life beyond Earth and engineer systems that possess the resilience and efficiency of nature itself.