Todd, P.M. (1994). Artificial death. In C. Schneider (Ed.), Jahresring 41 (German yearbook for modern art) (pp. 90-107). Munich: Verlag Silke Schreiber. (Also in same volume in German, under the title "Kunstlicher Tod," pp. 233-246.)

Abstract

We have developed an open-ended system for studying the evolution of behavior in a population of simulated creatures. The population grows when individual creatures actively reproduce; population size is kept in check by the death of creatures that run out of energy. This allows new creatures, with new behaviors, to have access to the environmental resources they will need to survive, so that constant turnover of individuals and consequent evolution can take place in the population. In many instances, though, super-individuals can evolve that choose to opt out of the energy-depleting reproduction process, becoming for all purposes immortal and thereby stalling the course of evolution. To solve this problem of immortality, new forms of death and senescence, including the possibility of suicide, must be added. Differences in the simple rules used for "reaping functions" can have widely varying effects on the evolved behaviors of individuals and the global behavior of the population as a whole, and carry with them implications for the evolution of death in natural systems.



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