research-article

On hopeful monsters, neutral networks and junk code in evolving L-systems

Authors:

Stefan Bornhofen,

Claude LattaudAuthors Info & Claims

GECCO '08: Proceedings of the 10th annual conference on Genetic and evolutionary computation

Pages 193 - 200

https://doi.org/10.1145/1389095.1389127

Published: 12 July 2008 Publication History

Abstract

This paper investigates L-system evolution through experiments with a simulation platform of virtual plants. The conducted simulations vary the occurrence probability of terminal versus non-terminal symbols and study its impact on the evolutionary performance of the system. The results reveal a variant of the exploration-exploitation dilemma. A closer look at individual runs allows to discover a range of emergent evolutionary dynamics. In particular, the activation and improvement of previously dormant production rules leads to variation in the fixation rate of mutations. The corresponding fitness leaps suggest that L-system evolution derives much of its creative power from the mobilization of randomly drifting non-addressed rules. The observed patterns are related to the phenomena of positive and negative selection, neutral mutations and junk DNA in the natural genome.

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Cited By

Davila JEsparcia-Alcázar A(2015)An Empirical Comparison of Genetically Evolved Programs and Evolved Neural Networks for Multi-agent Systems Operating under Dynamic EnvironmentsProceedings of the Companion Publication of the 2015 Annual Conference on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation10.1145/2739482.2764717(1373-1374)Online publication date: 11-Jul-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2739482.2764717
Davila J(2014)Genotype coding, diversity, and dynamic environments: A study on an evolutionary neural network multi-agent system2014 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC)10.1109/CEC.2014.6900593(2306-2313)Online publication date: Jul-2014
https://doi.org/10.1109/CEC.2014.6900593
Fernández JLobo DMartn GDoursat RVico F(2012)Emergent diversity in an open-ended evolving virtual communityArtificial Life10.1162/artl_a_0005918:2(199-222)Online publication date: 1-Apr-2012
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1162/artl_a_00059
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

On hopeful monsters, neutral networks and junk code in evolving L-systems
1. General and reference
  1. Cross-computing tools and techniques
    1. Performance

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cover image ACM Conferences

GECCO '08: Proceedings of the 10th annual conference on Genetic and evolutionary computation

July 2008

1814 pages

ISBN:9781605581309

DOI:10.1145/1389095

Conference Chair:
Conor Ryan
University of Limerick, Ireland
,
Editor:
Maarten Keijzer
Chordiant Software International B.V., The Netherlands

Copyright © 2008 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 12 July 2008

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GECCO08: Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference

July 12 - 16, 2008

GA, Atlanta, USA

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Overall Acceptance Rate 1,669 of 4,410 submissions, 38%

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Cited By

Davila JEsparcia-Alcázar A(2015)An Empirical Comparison of Genetically Evolved Programs and Evolved Neural Networks for Multi-agent Systems Operating under Dynamic EnvironmentsProceedings of the Companion Publication of the 2015 Annual Conference on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation10.1145/2739482.2764717(1373-1374)Online publication date: 11-Jul-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2739482.2764717
Davila J(2014)Genotype coding, diversity, and dynamic environments: A study on an evolutionary neural network multi-agent system2014 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC)10.1109/CEC.2014.6900593(2306-2313)Online publication date: Jul-2014
https://doi.org/10.1109/CEC.2014.6900593
Fernández JLobo DMartn GDoursat RVico F(2012)Emergent diversity in an open-ended evolving virtual communityArtificial Life10.1162/artl_a_0005918:2(199-222)Online publication date: 1-Apr-2012
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1162/artl_a_00059
Bornhofen SLattaud C(2009)Competition and evolution in virtual plant communitiesNatural Computing: an international journal10.1007/s11047-008-9089-58:2(349-385)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2009
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s11047-008-9089-5

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