[Lrde Annonce] Poster accepted at TPNC 2015

Dear collegues, I am happy to inform you that my poster submission to TPNC 2015 (Theory and Practice of Natural Computing, Mieres, Spain, 15-16 December) has been accepted. The poster's abstract is given below: Scientists have been drawing bridges between Computer Science and Biology for a long time now. Biologists make a constant use of tools from Computer Science to gain a better understanding of their research field (genetics, systems biology etc.). Conversely, many ideas and models from Biology are used in Computer Science (artificial intelligence, neural networks, genetic algorithms etc.). In every such case however, these bridges are intentional: there is always the will to grab a model here, and apply it there. But what if other connections existed before we even realized it? What if common, inherent behavioral patterns were to be found in both Computer Science and Biology? In other words, are there any bridges to be discovered rather than invented? This poster will exhibit one such bridge, discovered almost by accident: the behavioral equivalence of LaTeX, a software typesetting system, and unicellular life, in terms of evolution. In Biology, evolution is usually seen as a tinkering process, different from what an engineer does when he plans the development of his systems. Recently however, studies have shown that even in Biology, there is a part of good engineering. On the other hand, computer scientists have much more difficulty to admit that there is also a great deal of tinkering in what they do, and that their software systems behave more and more like tinkered, biological realms every day. The LaTeX world is probably one of the best examples of this. It is composed of thousands of software components in constant evolution, most notably documents, classes and styles. Classes and styles are born, evolve or die, interact with each other, compete or cooperate, very much like living organisms do at the cellular level. By considering LaTeX documents as unicellular organisms, classes as their initial genetic material and styles as viruses that infect them, we are able to exhibit a fascinating number of behavioral patterns common to both worlds. We analyze infection methods, types and cures, and we show how both LaTeX and unicellular organisms are able to survive in a world of perpetual war, by using the same techniques. This work may be the very first example of software "reverse-tinkering", and may help to eventually realize that the silicon-based world is much more biological than we ever would have thought. As such, and in light of recent work that tend to consider cells as proper genetic computers, it is also time to consider than maybe we haven't actually invented Computer Science; only discovered it. -- My new Jazz CD entitled "Roots and Leaves" is out! Check it out: http://didierverna.com/records/roots-and-leaves.php Lisp, Jazz, Aïkido: http://www.didierverna.info