Abstract:

We address the process of copying in Artificial Life organisms. Copying is a source of mutations, a crucial component in evolution. We propose that rich copying mechanisms, and thereby rich evolutionary systems, can be obtained by embodying the copying process in a lower-level simulation.

We demonstrate an embodied copying process that has the potential to alter its own mutation rate, without having the concept of a mutation rate parameter explicit in the system.

@inproceedings(SS-ECAL11-54,
  author = "Adam Nellis and Susan Stepney",
  title = "Embodied copying for richer evolution",
  pages = "597-604",
  crossref = "ECAL11"
)

@proceedings(ECAL11,
  title = "ECAL 2011, Paris, France, August 2011",
  booktitle = "ECAL 2011, Paris, France, August 2011",
  publisher = "MIT Press",
  year = 2011
)