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My understanding of Tierra and its successors like Avida are that the "digital organisms" are written beforehand and then systematically (pseudorandomly) mutate
by rotexo 8y ago
My understanding of Tierra and its successors like Avida are that the "digital organisms" are written beforehand and then systematically (pseudorandomly) mutated. Because the initial "organisms" are written, it would be a stretch to say that "life" developed in these systems. A statement like "the process of evolution by natural selection was simulated in an artificial system" would seem to be more accurate.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y agoYes, this is true, however I think the distinction is irrelevant. The initial VM was created with the intention of encouraging this evolution, had the original intent included spontaneous emergence of a-life as a goal I'm pretty confident that would have happened.
- rotexo 8y agoSeems like that's an assertion begging for an experiment. Take the software that manages experiments in Avida or Tierra, but don't supply pre-written organisms. Bit-flip randomly and see if something develops. Unfortunately I don't know the implementation details of those systems at all, so I can't say whether or not that would be feasible.