The Most Beautiful Algorithm in the Universe
Dec 13 2025
There is a lot of speculation about whether alien civilisations would have discovered the same mathematics as us, or what their mathematics would look like. Similarly in Biology and Biochemistry, there are theories on different forms that biological life can take, from the use of biomolecules with alternative chirality to other elements as alternatives to carbon as a base of life.
Whilst these are certainly super interesting discussions to be had on variations of science across the universe. I believe their to be a process in the universe which remains constant; evolution as an algorithm for creating complex biological life.
Evolution requires various assumptions:
- First, that a species replicates by producing offspring.
- Second, their offspring both inherits their parents attributes, whilst introducing variations.
- Lastly, individuals eventually dying would likely be required to prevent over-crowding and a saturation of resources.
However, imagine a species in which these assumptions do not hold? Without producing offspring or replicating at all, your species has a finite population of individuals, thus would eventually die out. Secondly, species that replicate without inheriting attributes from their parents would be equivalent to random search for optimal biological form, which is incredibly slow for producing advanced life. If a species replicates without mutations, then other species that eventually do introduce mutations would quickly evolve to dominate those which don't.
Why would a species want to survive anyway? Well it doesn't need to want anything, the species that lasts the longest will naturally dominate over those that are not optimised for survival and continue to flourish.
Thus it seems natural that for a species to progress and survive it must replicate with inheritance and mutation, in which the fittest individuals survive - evolution.
The idea that this algorithm of biology transcends different biological forms or even laws of physics (assuming both allow life in the first place) seems incredibly beautiful to me. It doesn't matter what chemical base your life is, what chirality it uses, what physics it uses or mathematics it develops. It seems logical that evolution must rapidly be adopted in a system where life emerges.
Whilst there is not much we can know for certain about alien life, we can be certain that evolution took place to create that life. Thus assumptions could be made about that life form based on evolutionary pressures (such as the ability to perceive the world).
Of course evolution dramatically slows down with intelligence. A sufficiently advanced intelligence can stop fighting for resources, allow unfit individuals to survive and replicate, and support each other in fighting death. However, it still takes evolution to develop that complex life in the first place.
The algorithm of biological evolution may be one of the few things that are constant throughout the universe where life develops. And that is a wonderfully beautiful concept to me.