Investigation of the truly two-dimensional artificial life evolution

Abstract

Artificial life is a field, where researchers try to create digital models of real, biological, life in order to understand evolution, life, and processes in life by reverse engineering those processes. Before this study, there were several successful attempts to simulate artificial life: Tierra (one-dimensional simulation), Avida (pseudo-twodimensional circular space with ancestor), Amoeba (pseudo-two-dimensional space without ancestor), and Fungera (truly two-dimensional with ancestor). This study is focused on two main topics: investigating the behavior of Fungera and inventing new instruction sets for Fungera in order to make this simulation more stable and sustainable. In order to conduct an in-depth investigation, new metrics and analysis methods were introduced. For a more sustainable system, three additional instruction sets were introduced, inspired by DNA repair mechanisms and template-based control structures.