Abstract

Recently we introduced a model of symbiosis, Model-S, based on the evolution of seed patterns in Conway's Game of Life. In the model, the fitness of a seed pattern is measured by one-on-one competitions in the Immigration Game, a two-player variation of the Game of Life. Our previous article showed that Model-S can serve as a highly abstract, simplified model of biological life: (1) The initial seed pattern is analogous to a genome. (2) The changes as the game runs are analogous to the development of the phenome. (3) Tournament selection in Model-S is analogous to natural selection in biology. (4) The Immigration Game in Model-S is analogous to competition in biology. (5) The first three layers in Model-S are analogous to biological reproduction. (6) The fusion of seed patterns in Model-S is analogous to symbiosis. The current article takes this analogy two steps further: (7) Autopoietic structures in the Game of Life (still lifes, oscillators, and spaceships-collectively known as ashes) are analogous to cells in biology. (8) The seed patterns in the Game of Life give rise to multiple, diverse, cooperating autopoietic structures, analogous to multicellular biological life. We use the apgsearch software (Ash Pattern Generator Search), developed by Adam Goucher for the study of ashes, to analyze autopoiesis and multicellularity in Model-S. We find that the fitness of evolved seed patterns in Model-S is highly correlated with the diversity and quantity of multicellular autopoietic structures.

Highlights

  • In previous work [26], we introduced Model-S, a computational model of the evolution of symbiosis

  • We find that the fitness of evolved seed patterns in Model-S is highly correlated with the diversity and quantity of multicellular autopoietic structures

  • The Immigration Game is a two-player variation on the solitaire Game of Life (GoL), invented by John Conway in 1970 [5, 22]

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Summary

Introduction

In previous work [26], we introduced Model-S, a computational model of the evolution of symbiosis. Our previous article on Model-S [26] discussed the analogies presented here in the first six rows in Table 2: (1) The initial seed pattern in a cellular automaton is like a genome It is a static encoding of the information that determines how the game will unfold, according to the rules of the game. It seems necessary that any effort to create soups (seed patterns) that are increasingly better at winning Immigration Games will result in soups that yield increasing productivity and diversity of ashes From this perspective, the current article tells us more about the nature of the Immigration Game and the Game of Life than it tells us about Model-S.

Related Work
Model-S
Autopoiesis
Experiments
Fitness and Productivity
Fitness and Diversity
Summary of Results
Future Work and Limitations
Findings
Conclusion
Full Text
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