Life and Death of an Algorithm
2016
ʻLife and Death of an Algorithm’ is a series of works that are constructed from thousands of dice and that explore the emergence of complexity and self-organisation from the simplest initial conditions.
The dice are laid out in a pattern that emulates the rules of a simple computer algorithm. Governed by its own laws, the algorithm follows a trajectory that emulates the evolution of life: coming into existence, evolving and eventually culminating in death, as the pattern exhausts all potential paths.
The series originates from Troika’s interest in the autonomy of algorithms, technological acceleration and emergence, and began with ʻHierophany’ in 2013 and ʻCalculating the Universe’ in 2014. While its predecessors materialise a pattern generated and maintained by binary systems, ʻLife and Death of an Algorithm’, focuses on the point at which self-governance falters and results in termination.
The algorithm devised for ʻLife and Death of an Algorithm’ goes back to John Von Neumann, the physicist who pioneered a type of electronic architecture foundational for the creation of modern digital computers. While working on the infamous Manhattan project at Los Alamos laboratory during the Second World War, he started a parallel line of inquiry in search for a mathematical model for biological and physical systems, capable of self-replication and computation. As a thought experiment he devised the cellular automaton, an algorithmic system aiming to recreate the properties of living, self-replicating systems: mathematical life forms. Whilst previous scientific theories offered the assurance of a world firmly based on rules, his research brought in the radical prospect of uncertainty. How do we figure out what is true? What evidence can we trust, and where do we meet the limits of our knowledge?