Enhancing the diversity of self-replicating structures using active self-adapting mechanisms
Numerous varieties of life forms have filled the earth throughout evolution. Evolution consists of two processes: self-replication and interaction with the physical environment and other living things around it. Initiated by von Neumann et al. studies on self-replication in cellular automata have a...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2022-07-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Genetics |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fgene.2022.958069/full |
| _version_ | 1818161275760279552 |
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| author | Wenli Xu Chunrong Wu Qinglan Peng Jia Lee Jia Lee Yunni Xia Yunni Xia Shuji Kawasaki |
| author_facet | Wenli Xu Chunrong Wu Qinglan Peng Jia Lee Jia Lee Yunni Xia Yunni Xia Shuji Kawasaki |
| author_sort | Wenli Xu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Numerous varieties of life forms have filled the earth throughout evolution. Evolution consists of two processes: self-replication and interaction with the physical environment and other living things around it. Initiated by von Neumann et al. studies on self-replication in cellular automata have attracted much attention, which aim to explore the logical mechanism underlying the replication of living things. In nature, competition is a common and spontaneous resource to drive self-replications, whereas most cellular-automaton-based models merely focus on some self-protection mechanisms that may deprive the rights of other artificial life (loops) to live. Especially, Huang et al. designed a self-adaptive, self-replicating model using a greedy selection mechanism, which can increase the ability of loops to survive through an occasionally abandoning part of their own structural information, for the sake of adapting to the restricted environment. Though this passive adaptation can improve diversity, it is always limited by the loop’s original structure and is unable to evolve or mutate new genes in a way that is consistent with the adaptive evolution of natural life. Furthermore, it is essential to implement more complex self-adaptive evolutionary mechanisms not at the cost of increasing the complexity of cellular automata. To this end, this article proposes new self-adaptive mechanisms, which can change the information of structural genes and actively adapt to the environment when the arm of a self-replicating loop encounters obstacles, thereby increasing the chance of replication. Meanwhile, our mechanisms can also actively add a proper orientation to the current construction arm for the sake of breaking through the deadlock situation. Our new mechanisms enable active self-adaptations in comparison with the passive mechanism in the work of Huang et al. which is achieved by including a few rules without increasing the number of cell states as compared to the latter. Experiments demonstrate that this active self-adaptability can bring more diversity than the previous mechanism, whereby it may facilitate the emergence of various levels in self-replicating structures. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-11T16:15:11Z |
| format | Article |
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| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-8021 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-11T16:15:11Z |
| publishDate | 2022-07-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Genetics |
| spelling | doaj.art-ecaa3eb5f3674f63bce20fee1f0421e12022-12-22T00:58:59ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Genetics1664-80212022-07-011310.3389/fgene.2022.958069958069Enhancing the diversity of self-replicating structures using active self-adapting mechanismsWenli Xu0Chunrong Wu1Qinglan Peng2Jia Lee3Jia Lee4Yunni Xia5Yunni Xia6Shuji Kawasaki7College of Computer Science, Chongqing University, Chongqing, ChinaCollege of Computer Science, Chongqing University, Chongqing, ChinaCollege of Computer Science, Chongqing University, Chongqing, ChinaCollege of Computer Science, Chongqing University, Chongqing, ChinaChongqing Key Laboratory of Software Theory and Technology, Chongqing, ChinaCollege of Computer Science, Chongqing University, Chongqing, ChinaChongqing Key Laboratory of Software Theory and Technology, Chongqing, ChinaFaculty of Science and Engineering, Iwate University, Morioka, Japan Numerous varieties of life forms have filled the earth throughout evolution. Evolution consists of two processes: self-replication and interaction with the physical environment and other living things around it. Initiated by von Neumann et al. studies on self-replication in cellular automata have attracted much attention, which aim to explore the logical mechanism underlying the replication of living things. In nature, competition is a common and spontaneous resource to drive self-replications, whereas most cellular-automaton-based models merely focus on some self-protection mechanisms that may deprive the rights of other artificial life (loops) to live. Especially, Huang et al. designed a self-adaptive, self-replicating model using a greedy selection mechanism, which can increase the ability of loops to survive through an occasionally abandoning part of their own structural information, for the sake of adapting to the restricted environment. Though this passive adaptation can improve diversity, it is always limited by the loop’s original structure and is unable to evolve or mutate new genes in a way that is consistent with the adaptive evolution of natural life. Furthermore, it is essential to implement more complex self-adaptive evolutionary mechanisms not at the cost of increasing the complexity of cellular automata. To this end, this article proposes new self-adaptive mechanisms, which can change the information of structural genes and actively adapt to the environment when the arm of a self-replicating loop encounters obstacles, thereby increasing the chance of replication. Meanwhile, our mechanisms can also actively add a proper orientation to the current construction arm for the sake of breaking through the deadlock situation. Our new mechanisms enable active self-adaptations in comparison with the passive mechanism in the work of Huang et al. which is achieved by including a few rules without increasing the number of cell states as compared to the latter. Experiments demonstrate that this active self-adaptability can bring more diversity than the previous mechanism, whereby it may facilitate the emergence of various levels in self-replicating structures.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fgene.2022.958069/fullself-replicationself-adaptioncellular automatongene mutationbiological resources |
| spellingShingle | Wenli Xu Chunrong Wu Qinglan Peng Jia Lee Jia Lee Yunni Xia Yunni Xia Shuji Kawasaki Enhancing the diversity of self-replicating structures using active self-adapting mechanisms Frontiers in Genetics self-replication self-adaption cellular automaton gene mutation biological resources |
| title | Enhancing the diversity of self-replicating structures using active self-adapting mechanisms |
| title_full | Enhancing the diversity of self-replicating structures using active self-adapting mechanisms |
| title_fullStr | Enhancing the diversity of self-replicating structures using active self-adapting mechanisms |
| title_full_unstemmed | Enhancing the diversity of self-replicating structures using active self-adapting mechanisms |
| title_short | Enhancing the diversity of self-replicating structures using active self-adapting mechanisms |
| title_sort | enhancing the diversity of self replicating structures using active self adapting mechanisms |
| topic | self-replication self-adaption cellular automaton gene mutation biological resources |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fgene.2022.958069/full |
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