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Is DNA best understood as software, an information storage medium, a language, a blueprint, or something fundamentally different? Investigate how DNA, RNA, and related biological molecules are encoded, interpreted, copied, and modified, and where familiar computational metaphors illuminate biology or break down.
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What happens when a statement, program, or logical system refers to itself? Explore the liar paradox, Gödel's incompleteness theorems, Turing's halting problem, and self-replicating programs to uncover the surprising power and limitations of self-reference.
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Can remarkably simple computational rules give rise to worlds of extraordinary complexity? Create cellular automata, artificial-life systems, or simulated universes to investigate emergence, complexity, and the possibility that sophisticated behavior can arise from simple underlying laws.
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Build a small artificial world in which simple agents must acquire energy, maintain themselves, and reproduce under resource limits. Compare strategies involving memory, cooperation, and resource sharing, then change the environment to see which persist. Explore what this model can reveal about survival and agency, and where the analogy with biological life breaks down.
Link to this ideaAll 25 project ideas, the mentoring invitation, and next steps in one illustrated lookbook.
Mike Andrews P'28 · Independent ISP mentorship