Chaos is Creation: evolution in real time

The program and source code is available for download at www.scottschaferenterprises.com. This is a simple computer simulation of biological life, demonstrating evolution and adaptation through natural selection. Critters act according to their instruction set (executed as a simple program), gain energy by moving over food, and reproduce as an exact or mutated copy when they have a high enough energy level.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Artificial
• Life
• Evolution
• Simuation

[zeldawind6]

what languadge did you use to program this???

[scotchfaster]

@zeldawind6 C++

[4540524]

3:14 blue critter is spinning.Just spinning.

[scotchfaster]

@4540524 It's doing a little more than that. If you watch it closely, you'll see it travels from somewhere else, while avoiding getting stuck on the X barrier. At 3:17, it uncoils to eat a dot of green food. The spinning is emergent behavior I hadn't anticipated - basically, it allows a critter to sit in one spot and look for food in four directions. Because the head can only be oriented in four directions, though, a spinning critter can miss food that's nearby but diagonal.

[scotchfaster]

Finally, if all the critter did was spin, it would run out of energy and die, and that would be the end of that instruction set. This happens quite a bit - most mutations are not adaptive.

[Houshalter]

Darwinbots is an awesome artificial life simulator.

[scotchfaster]

@Houshalter - I liked what I've seen of Darwinbots, but I guess I just wasn't patient enough to see emergent behavior evolve. Have you? In any case, my goal with this program was to create something simple enough to be comprehensible (I hope) to a non-programmer, and to the evolutionary skeptic.

While we're putting in plugs for other people's work, I'm a fan of Gerald de Jong (search on darwinathome). Check out his new Tetragotchi project.

[sycodeathman]

cliffw77- you are trying to debunk evolution by saying "evolution doesnt explain how the first critters got there," well, evolution is not supposed to explain the FIRST life, just how it CHANGES once it already exists.

[sycodeathman]

@sycodeathman mfw i come back to a comment and it is the top rated one :D

[SirShakeJunt]

@sycodeathman Plus we have already found that "critters" can evolve from single celled organisms from non-living matter :\

[bretttheturner]

this is awesome, but people come up to you on the street and ask you that, I want to live where you live lol

[RECKOGNING1]

Awesome theres actually something today that revolves around nature and the world we live in all in one game keep up the work scotchfaster

[kid29a]

"People are always stopping me on a street and asking..." Hahaha sure

Good video anyway hah ;)

[4540524]

@scotchfaster Got it...Hadn't seen it moving, anyways, thanks a lot for showing us this marvelous simulation.I LOVE genetic algorythms and this type of thing.