Without looking at the actual Tierra code, I long ago wrote a semi-clone of Tierra. It's not as pretty, but it does the same things, and it's pretty fast. (I wrote it to run on Minix. In 128K. It fits in the L2 cache on a modern system.)
It should be entirely ANSI C, and run on anything from a 16-bit processor w/128K on up. Some of the code is a little amateurish, but it's very portable.
It stated in the article that the levels of radiation will be "safe." I presume that means safe for humans, i.e. non-lethal dosages.
There are different kinds of radiation. Just because people call microwave ovens "nukes" does not mean that they actually use nuclear radiation.
Quick science review: There are two main types of "radiation" in this context: that caused by acclerated particles (alpha and beta radiation, produced by fission and to a lesser degree fusion) and electromagnetic radiation.
Hopefully you know that all electromagnetic radiation is essentially the same thing. It's a vibrating electromagnetic wave, the only important things are the frequency and the intensity. High-frequency stuff (like gamma and x rays) are "ionizing"; even a little of it can knock an electron free of an atom. If this happens to DNA, presto, you have a mutation.
Visible light and microwave radiation are "non- ionizing". Unless you have a lot of it, it won't do damage to individual molecules. You don't want to stand in front of a powerful antenna, but that's not because it's actually ionizing atoms in your body. It's just dumping energy into it, which shows up as heat. You can get cooked that way.
Now, cells put under stress do spontaneously mutate from time to time. As I understand it, this is why sunburn can cause skin cancer; I don't think that ultraviolet light is considered ionizing.
Bacteria might proliferate in a warm area (such as a proposed microwave power receiever would be) but that's no different from fish accumulating near nuclear power plants because they like the heat from the cooling water.
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It should be entirely ANSI C, and run on anything from a 16-bit processor w/128K on up. Some of the code is a little amateurish, but it's very portable.
It's at http://www.tir.com/~sorceror/minev/in dex.html.
There are different kinds of radiation. Just
because people call microwave ovens "nukes"
does not mean that they actually use nuclear
radiation.
Quick science review: There are two main types
of "radiation" in this context: that caused by
acclerated particles (alpha and beta radiation,
produced by fission and to a lesser degree
fusion) and electromagnetic radiation.
Hopefully you know that all electromagnetic
radiation is essentially the same thing. It's
a vibrating electromagnetic wave, the only
important things are the frequency and the
intensity. High-frequency stuff (like gamma and
x rays) are "ionizing"; even a little of it can
knock an electron free of an atom. If this
happens to DNA, presto, you have a mutation.
Visible light and microwave radiation are "non-
ionizing". Unless you have a lot of it,
it won't do damage to individual molecules. You
don't want to stand in front of a powerful
antenna, but that's not because it's actually
ionizing atoms in your body. It's just dumping
energy into it, which shows up as heat. You can
get cooked that way.
Now, cells put under stress do spontaneously mutate from time to time. As I
understand it, this is why sunburn can cause
skin cancer; I don't think that ultraviolet light
is considered ionizing.
Bacteria might proliferate in a warm area (such
as a proposed microwave power receiever would
be) but that's no different from fish accumulating
near nuclear power plants because they like the
heat from the cooling water.