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This repository contains the software used in the paper "Evolution of Spots and Stripes in Cellular Automata".

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Evolution of Spots and Stripes in Cellular Automata

Abstract

The Game of Life is a universal computer, capable of computing anything that Turing machines can compute. It belongs to a family of cellular automata with 262,144 members (2^18), many of which are also universal computers. Playing the Game of Life usually involves engineering dynamic constructions that perform interesting actions. Instead of engineering cellular automata, we propose to evolve cellular automata. Engineering requires assembling pieces that have various functions, in order to achieve an envisioned goal. Engineering involves planning and foresight. However, evolution does not work towards an imagined goal. Evolution uses mutation, selection, and a fitness measure to achieve a goal. Evolution works towards increasing fitness, with no expectations about the form of the final result. Mutation, selection, and fitness yield structures that appear to be more organic and life-like than engineered structures. In our experiments, the patterns resulting from evolution look much like the spots on leopards and the stripes on tigers.

Keywords: cellular automata, evolutionary algorithms, Game of Life, self-organized patterns, mutation and selection.

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