Protocells are hypothesised as a transitional phase in the origin of life, prior to the evolution of fully functional prokaryotic cells. The work reported here is being done in the context of the PACE project, which is investigating the fabrication of artificial protocells de novo. We consider here the important open question of whether or how articifial protocells (if or when they are successfullyudfabricated) might be applied as “computing” devices—what sort of computing might they be suitable for, and how might they be “programmed”? We also present some preliminary analysis of a crude model of such “evolutionary protocell computation”.
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