Gene Pool

Richard Dawkins once expressed a desire to see artificial life simulations that use genetic algorithms but do not require a 'fitness function' - in other words, evolution occurs NOT because of some long-term goal arbitrarily determined by a designer, but because of the ability of artificial organisms to have offspring (some being more able than others). Gene Pool (www.swimbots.com) was designed to be an answer to Dawkins' call.

Gene Pool is a virtual Darwinian Aquarium where you can witness evolution unfolding before your eyes. In Gene Pool, sex is synonymous with survival.

Mate selection criteria can be tweaked to see what happens when "fat" or "immobile" or "long" are considered beautiful - even if these attributes run counter to having the anatomy and motor control for efficient swimming.

Check out Gene Pool at www.swimbots.com. It runs on both the Mac and on Windows.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• artificial life
• genetic algorithm
• simulation
• game
• darwinian evolution
• sexual selection.

[crazymcfobo]

I love showing this to my creationist friends. After they understand how the game works I tell this is basically how evolution works and they get mad at me.

[Vir9il]

I remember there was a program called Framsticks which was very similar to this, only in 3D.

[Gesmehod]

I remember this from way back. Your music evolution program also.

[MsCoralline]

Thanks for this video. I'll have to check out Gene Pool. However, from the few examples I've seen here, it looks like a high Reynold's number environment, which is fantastically inaccurate for small things. But I could be very wrong about that. Will take a look!