Most software engineering rests on intelligent a priori design. Our bottom up approach relies on building a system of versatile, configurable primitives that incorporate biological features such as cellular organization and genetic encoding. Each starting configuration is subjected to successive rounds of development, selection according to prescribed fitness criteria, and mutation, until the best solution emerges.

We are committed to the notion that interaction and fine-tuning of small, versatile lower-level components can give rise to higher order dynamic properties of living systems such as emergence, robustness, homeostasis, adaptability, and self-repair. By emphasizing process over form, this radically different approach breaks constraints that handcuff top-down models. It produces solutions that no human likely could anticipate, and it may be applicable to a broad range of problems.