cover image DIGITAL BIOLOGY: How Nature Is Transforming Our Technology and Our Lives

DIGITAL BIOLOGY: How Nature Is Transforming Our Technology and Our Lives

Peter J. Bentley, P. J. Bentley, . . Simon & Schuster, $24 (272pp) ISBN 978-0-7432-0447-7

Though books about technology's effect on nature abound, few titles consider the reverse impact. British research scientist Bentley—perhaps recognizing the counterintuitive quality of his argument—seems to redouble his efforts to make his point. Sectioned off into chapters with general titles like "Evolution," "Brains" and "Immune Systems," his book is an entertaining look at the ways in which systems of nature are influencing advances in computer research. Bentley contends that "natural and digital biology follow the same processes, just in different universes"; programmers can function as "digital biologists," he says, and make worlds with digital genes, brains, plants and insects. Bentley is at his best when he takes phenomena of the natural world—like evolution—and shows how they're used in computer programming. He explains, for example, how he programmed his computer to "evolve" a design for a coffee table: the computer created a digital universe in which objects could reproduce; the objects "began life as random blobs," but after hundreds of generations of "continuous evolution" they ended up looking like tables. (He had the best design made—and rests his feet on it as he writes.) While the writing is intelligent, well reasoned and good-humored to a fault, once the average reader accepts Bentley's basic premise, the reiteration might deters some from reading on. (Feb.)