Evolutionary Theories

Evolution is a process of change.

Evolution is the dominant thoughtset used to explain the forms and behaviours of organisms, and changes to these over time. This is not to say that evolutionary theory is limited to use in that context, as it is also successfully applied to areas such as the development of manmade objects, political structures, communication systems, cultural traditions and, of thought itself. However, evolution has most commonly been used to describe and research ways in which life changes and develops over time, and so it is useful to stay with the language and conventions commonly used for this area to examine the evolutionary aspects of Artificial Life, and particularly in the Second Life AL Ecosystem that flourishes at the EDGE of Life.

Each of the digital organisms living at the EDGE of Life has identifiable features that demonstrate evolution in progress. These features are described in each of their Digital Organism profiles, found in the Catalogue.

This page will be used for a deeper discussion of evolutionary theory that helps to interpret the evolutionary aspects of the EDGE of Life Organisms.

Darwinian Natural Selection - Food as filter.

Survival of a digital organism is dependent on a variety of variabls. These include competition for food.

We are attempting to make this a meaningful aspect of that has a bearing on evolutionary change in the EDGE of Life EWG organisms

Some of the EDGE evolutionary mechanisms are based on feeding success or failure. This is dependent on there being a limited but stable food supply. If the plants die off too easily, then nothing that eats them can survive anyway, so stability, combined with ways to limit food supply is necessary to set up this sort of evolutionary paradigm. There must be a failure built into this scenario for it to make sense. However, if the unsuccessful organisms are beaten to all of the food every time, and if this kills them, then this prevents them forming stable populations, which could lead to a dreary monoculture, so not a good outcome. So the penalty for failure can't be death, but must rather be something that penalises the less successful organism without killing it. Or alternatively, the reward for eating the most or 'best' food must be something that brings some other advantage beyond staying alive, whilst allowing for penalised organisms to survive alongside them.

1. Competition for food according to who is biggest/strongest/fastest

This is dependent on there being a sufficient food supply for a topline 'predator' to be able to survive purely by taking the lion's share of available food.

If the ecosystem is a herbivorous one, then this group of organisms must have some way to beat competitors to a food supply.

2. Competition for food according to who is cleverest/sneakist/most persistent

This is dependent on there being a food supply that needs an element of problem solving to access. I'm trying to think of any of the currently existing creatures that have these qualities. Not sure that any do this yet. But they may, and they certainly learn where food is and the best ways to reach it, so maybe.

3. Competition for food according to best physical adaptation

Dependent on their being a food supply that is in some way difficult to access 'physically' so it is located in a difficult place for a creature to get to, or need a special adaptation, like a tube that can get inside something that other creatures can't access. This is all nonsense while any creature can feed from a distance, and can fly, swim and float through walls though.

4. Avatars provide a food source for many creatures. This means that ones that interact most with avs survive when no plant food is available. This works both ways, as to some extent, the av chooses which creature to approach/touch, so the one they find most attractive may be the one that gets access to the most avatar energy.

That's enough for now... more to come.

Darwinian Natural Selection - Survival dependent on reproduction.

We are attempting to make this a meaningful aspect of evolutionary change in the EDGE of Life EWG organisms

Currently reproduction happens in a number of ways.

1. Plant reproduction

Basic plants, such as Vegetable and Hornflower reproduce/self replicate if the environmental conditions are met. These include correct lag levels, no overcrowding, reproductive partners in close proximity.

Tree plants reproduce through fruiting and then by the fruit producing new trees.

2. Animal reproduction

Animals reproduce through human selection and touch interaction, or through spontaneous spawning events.

What is spawned from a parent is not always predictable. The organism body is not morphable, but the combination of modular scripts is very variable and so the characteristics of the creatures may change radically from one generation to the next.

Just found this discussion of Alife, co-incidentally called the Edge http://www.edge.org/discourse/dysong_darwin.htm

More to come here...

Venus Jervil