Quote:s505, is autocatalytic set theory analogous to a roomful of monkeys producing some collection of literature, not necessarily Shakespeare? in the case of literature, many other collections exist, but in the case of life, the protein/DNA/RNA set is the only known example, unless the red cells of India prove to be the real McCoy. so far, no one has created in the lab a self-replicating autocatalytic set, am i right?
No, because you you can have any number of finite solutions and as long as the problem is still growing exponentially, having more possible solutions is not going to make any practical difference in the probability of finding one of those solutions.
The proper analogy would be something like this:
Make a list of words from an alien language and hope that the monkeys are able to produce just a single word from your list. However, there is a catch-- you have removed most of the keys from their alien typewriters. But while they are typing, you go about replacing the keys on their typewriters, and each time you replace a key you also add a new alien word to the list. Moreover, in this alien language there is an infinite number of letters, so the odds just get better.
As far as evidence goes for the theory, the answer is yes and no. Hand calculations and computer simulations show the sets to develope reliably with near certainty. Also, many autocatalytic sets have been identified by researchers. However, I think they have had trouble creating them on purpose, and verifying that their probability of occuring is as predicted.
