SETI mach II

So maybe this idea has already been done, if it has can someone point me to a link?ok ready... so we always see these absurdly large improbability numbers for the spontaneous generation of self replicating molecules. Can someone (or a group) write a series of physical laws into a computer program, enter in some matter to begin with, and see what happens to that matter over time? Of course the more complicated the laws, and the smaller the individual units the more computing time it would take for each virtual second (or minute, or day) to progress.So why not follow in SETI's steps, and divvy up the computations between millions of home computers and see what we end up with? There would have to be a lot of guess work involved... but that would mainly be with the mass to originally start with. The physical laws would be relatively simple (just mimicking what we observe today as much as possible)thoughts? is this feasible? Given the computing power of the world (or at least those interested in participating in this) how long would it take for... oh... 2 billion years to elapse in this virtual world?Maybe as a precursor simple virtual life forms can be set loose in a fabricated environment with rules to see what evolves over time. If the end result contains IC system that would be falsification of the assertion that IC systems can not evolve by chance/natural selection.If these two programs could produce self replicating molecules and IC systems, respectively, this would be direct observations that complex life can arise on it’s own.

Actually, i started this topic and no one responded right away, so i figured no one cared. Then i found Percy's Alife thread, and i responded to that, and mentioned generally this same idea there.I'm not too interested in finding out EXACTLY what the first self replicating molecule... i'm thinking this kind of division of processing power would be used more for finding emerging complexity that arises from a set of basic laws. Like i said above, the emergence of a seemingly IC system would go a long way into showing "IC" systems are not irreducibly complex at all.

Right, this is correct, but as you probably know this only talks about the original basic laws. At the most this argument could be used to prove God must have tipped everything off at the very beginning... but then again there are pretty much ONLY un-testable suppositions about how the physical laws came to be what we see them as.If a computer simulation were to produce "IC" by random, step by step means, that would destroy the argument that "IC" systems can not come about by random step by step means.