Implementing Darwinian Evolution Using Synthetic Self-Replicators
Juntian Wu · 2025
This dissertation focuses on implementing Darwinian evolution step-by-step using synthetic self-replicators. The topic can be broken down into three major parts: (1) a mechanistic study of replication and mutation, (2) control of out-of-equilibrium steady states, and (3) driving multi-building-block replicating systems out-of-equilibrium to explore the potential for achieving error correction. In this dissertation, we demonstrate that synthetic self-replicators can replicate, mutate, survive, and evolve under dissipative out-of-equilibrium conditions—showing the potential to behave similarly to DNA/RNA.