Complex Genetic Evolution of Self-Replicating Loops
Chris Salzberg, Antony Antony, Hiroki Sayama · The MIT Press eBooks · 2004
It is generally believed that self-replication models con-structed on cellular automata have quite limited evolutionary dynamics in both diversity and adaptative behavior. Contrary to this view, we show that complex genetic diversification and adaptation processes may occur in self-replicating loop popu-lations. Applying newly developed tools for detailed genetic identification and genealogy tracing to evoloop populations, we uncovered a genotypic permutation space that expands combinatorially with replicator size. Within this space popu-lations demonstrate broad behavioral diversity and non-trivial genetic adaptation, maximizing colony density while enhanc-ing sustainability against other species. We also found a set of non-mutable subsequences enabling genetic operations that alter fitness differentials and promote long-term evolutionary exploration. These results reveal the amazing potential of cel-lular automata to re-create complex genetic evolution of self-replicators in a simple, deterministic framework.