Hierarchical Components and Entity-based Modelling in Artificial Life
Matt Webster, Grant Malcolm · 2008
We present notions of entity and entity-based model that are applicable to artificial life. We illustrate these notions by giving an abstraction of Langton’s loops: loop-like structures that reproduce in a cellular automaton. Our abstraction takes as entities persistent configurations of the cellular automaton, and shows how these entities may be combined to form more complex entities. The resulting entity-based model of Langton’s loops describes the functionality and interrelationships of these components, abstracting from their actual realisation in a cellular automaton. As well as providing a basis for the study of ecologies of interacting entities in artificial life, our approach provides a useful intermediate level of abstraction that can relate top-down and bottom-up approaches to the study of life-like systems.