I think the quote that you're looking for is: "All models are wrong; some are useful". That said, selection pressure is selection pressure, regardless of wheth

I think the quote that you're looking for is: "All models are wrong; some are useful". That said, selection pressure is selection pressure, regardless of whether the means are artificial (being culled from a list in RAM) or natural (being eaten by a lion). I don't see that evolution in a computer process, even with artificial constraints, is that much different to evolution in the "real world". I'm also not 100% sure exactly what your definition of an artificial constraint is, but something like Tierra might be more what you're looking for.