Related papers: Some Techniques for the Measurement of Complexity …
In previous work, I have developed an information theoretic complexity measure of networks. When applied to several real world food webs, there is a distinct difference in complexity between the real food web, and randomised control…
The issue of how to create open-ended evolution in an artificial system is one the open problems in artificial life. This paper examines two of the factors that have some bearing on this issue, using the Tierra artificial life system. {\em…
We present a new tierra-inspired artificial life system with local interactions and two-dimensional geometry, based on an update mechanism akin to that of 2D cellular automata. We find that the spatial geometry is conducive to the…
One of the hallmarks of biological organisms is their ability to integrate disparate information sources to optimize their behavior in complex environments. How this capability can be quantified and related to the functional complexity of…
We investigate the evolutionary processes behind the development and optimization of multiple threads of execution in digital organisms using the avida platform, a software package that implements Darwinian evolution on populations of…
This research project investigates Lenia, an artificial life platform that simulates ecosystems of digital creatures. Lenia's ecosystem consists of simple, artificial organisms that can move, consume, grow, and reproduce. The platform is…
Artificial Life provides the opportunity to study the emergence and evolution of simple ecosystems in real time. We give an overview of the advantages and limitations of such an approach, as well as its relation to individual-based modeling…
Despite the common misconception of nearly static organisms, plants do interact continuously with the environment and with each other. It is fair to assume that during their evolution they developed particular features to overcome problems…
Complexity is a signature quality of interest in artificial life systems. Alongside other dimensions of assessment, it is common to quantify genome sites that contribute to fitness as a complexity measure. However, limitations to the…
Of all the issues discussed at {\em Alife VII: Looking Forward, Looking Backward}, the issue of whether it was possible to create an artificial life system that exhibits {\em open-ended evolution} of novelty is by far the biggest. Of the 14…
While all organisms on Earth descend from a common ancestor, there is no consensus on whether the origin of this ancestral self-replicator was a one-off event or whether it was only the final survivor of multiple origins. Here we use the…
In analogon to successful artificial evolution simulations as Tierra or avida, this text presents a way to perform artificial evolution in a native x86 system. The implementation of the artificial chemistry and first results of statistical…
In order to make a case for or against a trend in the evolution of complexity in biological evolution, complexity needs to be both rigorously defined and measurable. A recent information-theoretic (but intuitively evident) definition…
A population of individuals with the same genes can present heterogeneous traits (phenotypes). The prevalence of this heterogeneity can be explained as a bet-hedging strategy that improves the population proliferation rate (fitness) in…
In a genetic algorithm, fluctuations of the entropy of a genome over time are interpreted as fluctuations of the information that the genome's organism is storing about its environment, being this reflected in more complex organisms. The…
Relation of genome sizes to organisms complexity is still described rather equivocally. Neither the number of genes (G-value), nor the total amount of DNA (C-value) correlates consistently with phenotype complexity. Using information theory…
Biologists measure information in different ways. Neurobiologists and researchers in bioinformatics often measure information using information-theoretic measures such as Shannon's entropy or mutual information. Behavioral biologists and…
Why are living systems complex? Why does the biosphere contain living beings with complexity features beyond those of the simplest replicators? What kind of evolutionary pressures result in more complex life forms? These are key questions…
We describe and investigate the learning capablities displayed by a population of self-replicating segments of computer-code subject to random mutation: the tierra environment. We find that learning is achieved through phase transitions…
The ability of organisms to accurately sense their environment and respond accordingly is critical for evolutionary success. However, exactly how the sensory ability influences fitness is a topic of active research, while the necessity of a…