Researchers create digital primordial soup where self-replicating programs spontaneously evolve problem-solving abilities through random mutations, task-based selection in Z80 assembly code experiments.

Co-evolution of self-replication and function in a digital primordial soup

Authors:Francesco Cicala, Eyvind Niklasson, Ettore Randazzo, Sami Boukortt, Alessio Basti, Mayalen Etcheverry, Rif A. Saurous, Ben Laurie, James Manyika, Blaise Aguera-Arcas, Blake Richards View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:While traditional evolutionary algorithms hard-code reproduction, self-replication can emerge spontaneously within digital ``primordial soups''. This paper investigates the co-evolution of this emergent self-replication alongside problem-solving capabilities. We initializ...