Yeah I guess that is pretty crazy. OTOH, there was a study of a virtual machine where someone filled RAM up with random opcodes and running the machine forward in time brought about self-replicating programs because of random self-copying sequences of opcodes. So maybe self-replication is simpler than we&#x27;ve been making it out to be?<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;diyhpl.us&#x2F;~bryan&#x2F;papers2&#x2F;ai&#x2F;The%20evolution%20of%20self-replicating%20computer%20organisms%20-%20A.%20N.%20Pargellis.pdf" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;diyhpl.us&#x2F;~bryan&#x2F;papers2&#x2F;ai&#x2F;The%20evolution%20of%20se...</a><p>(To be clear, the first &quot;self-copying sequences&quot; didn&#x27;t look like self-replication in CoreWars or whatever, but evidently they did observe the construction of self-replicating programs over time.)