Introduction
What is it all about?
The G System (or G for short) was designed primarily for one purpose: the simulation of
evolution. But what does this mean? This is a good question to
ask and happily it is not too difficult to answer. Before
we start, we want to say that the system is in no way limited
to this kind of simulation but this is what we have in mind
while creating the G System. If you intend to use it for something
completely different you will probably find out that it is quite
useful for many purposes - because everything actually is part
of evolution...
Many scientific or mathematical simulation frameworks and applications are highly specialized
in their area, which are mostly of a technical nature like electronics, mechanics or any combination.
The G System does not attempt to bring a complete framework in such areas but tries to fill the
gap of a more social, life and evolution framework. Still, it provides the means to construct
many highly technical simulations and in fact such implementations could bring even more completeness
to the virtual universe that the G System brings forth. The main aspects of the G System do not
in any way contradict to technical simulations. In fact, life itself is a wonderfully scientific
system, which can model life, evolution and social aspects of our day to day experiences without
taking away the fascination passionate philosophers intuitively feel about the subject.
It is important to remember that the word simulation in the context of the
G System is not strictly used according to the technical meaning of the word in
todays science. Instead, the term is rather extended and applied to a much
wider range of phenomas we all encounter in daily life. This means that the
G System is a simulation in a broader view of things, trying to provide a
simulation and a framework for life, society and evolution besides being
a general purpose simulation framework.
Every software project has some origin, a reason why it exists and why
developers actually are willing to spend their time for. Thoughts, ideas
and a lot of other things are written down in the Philocorner document
of the G System. To understand the G System, one should understand the
philosophy that backs up this project. In some ways this document opens
the project to a group of people normally not involved in software
projects at all. Such people are of course highly welcome to join.
A Framework and its Universe
The G System Framework, as such, is not an application in itself, it is rather a set of tools and
libraries that can be used to make a simulation. They work by providing a kind of virtual reality
whose constituent elements evolve over time in a realistic way. Users can interact with this
reality and thus influence the environment. By being able to interact with
others in the environment users themselves are part of the process of evolution.
On the other hand, the G Universe is the virtual reality built with the G System in order to
implement the desired evolution simulation. This universe is open to anyone who wants to take
part in it. Participation of human entities results in a highly dynamic and interesting
behaviour of the overall virtual universe. This also leads to a worldwide virtual community
that builds up a complete society in this virtual world. The G Universe can in fact be used
to experiement with complex social settings as the working of the virtual world just represents
real life - since real life is evolution. The difference is that the G System offers more
possibilities, as it is virtual; and, being virtual, it allows for better analysation
and thus understanding of the processes involved.
This was a basic overview of what the G System aims at. It tries to give you a context for the rest
of the G System documentation. The following chapters will shed some light on different aspects
of G.
The Problem - Evolution.
Take a quick look at our world, what is there? People,
animals, plants ... but also cities, nations, the planet as a whole,
many natural areas like forests, continents, rivers, the air, ... .
On a different level we can consider that our environment is filled
with certain ideas, concepts, feelings, etc., whatever makes up
the atmosphere we feel or sense around us when we go to work,
interact with other people, or just sit in a quiet place.
The point is that all things around us are changing in one way
or another, and we ourself change in time. We can call this
"evolution". How is this accomplished? All systems follow
certain laws, physicists know this well.
But there are not only physical laws which accurately describe the
behaviour of physical matter, there are also laws that apply to the
latter categories (emotions, thoughts, ideas, the perceived ambiance
of the place we are right now,...).
Under such laws changes take place inside the system according
to how the individual parts influence each other. Now, this is a
very rational approach but I think it shows the basic concept.
Now let's take a look at the universe. Even this enormous
system is changing/evolving in some way. Solar systems come
into existence and will fade away. And inside such solar systems
we have planets. On some such planets we may find evolution to
be quite active...
I think the most interesting way of looking at evolution is to
think about human beings but this is left to the reader as an
exercise...
Summing things up we can say that everything is evolving and
evolution is possible through influences between parts of a
system. Designing the influences themselves and the reactions
are two major steps in creating a simulation with the G System.
Much of the basic infrastructure is already provided.