Digital Primordial Soup: How Self-Replication and Problem-Solving Co-Evolve
Co-evolution of self-replication and function in a digital primordial soup
We explored how self-replication and mathematical problem-solving emerge together from random Z80 assembly programs. By linking task success to interaction rates, we found that computational pressure drives the creation of compact, robust reproductive architectures. Our experiments show that environmental demands actively shape the physical structure of digital life, creating a feedback loop where spontaneous replication guides the evolution of complex functional capabilities.
Environmental task demands actively shape the physical architecture of self-replication, while spontaneous replication alters the evolutionary trajectory of functional problem-solving.
- EvanAnderson
Tierra[0], written by Tom Ray[1], immediately comes to mind. I was captivated when I read about it, as a teenager, in Steven Levy's "Artificial Life"[2]. Having played Core War[3], the description of Tierra in Levy's book inspired me to play around with making a virtual machine in Turbo Pascal and trying my hand at making a pale and naive clone. It was a lot of fun, and arguably has influenced a lot of my thinking about the origin of biological life.
[0] https://tomray.me/tierra/whatis.html
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_S._Ray
- vicgalle_
An independent reproduction of the main result: https://github.com/vicgalle/coevolution-soup
- ericbarrett
This is a cool finding; I did not know it was still an active area of study with all the work on ML and LLMs these days. I have done some amateur exploration of the space and the result does not surprise me: https://github.com/ehbar/evol
- dclavijo
I did something quite similar https://github.com/daedalus/syntropy but with riscv
- bob1029
See also:
https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.19108
> We show that when random, non self-replicating programs are placed in an environment lacking any explicit fitness landscape, self-replicators tend to arise. We demonstrate how this occurs due to random interactions and self-modification, and can happen with and without background random mutations. We also show how increasingly complex dynamics continue to emerge following the rise of self-replicators.