The surprising creativity of digital evolution

摘要: Natural evolution and complex adaptations often surprise scientists. However, the creativity of evolution is not limited to the natural world, transcending any particular substrate. In the context of digital evolution, artificial organisms evolving in computational environments are also able to elicit surprise and wonder. Indeed, most digital evolution researchers can relate anecdotes highlighting how common it is for their algorithms to creatively subvert their expectations or intentions, expose unrecognized bugs in their code, produce unexpectedly potent adaptations, or engage in behaviors and outcomes uncannily convergent with ones found in nature. Such stories routinely reveal the surprise and creativity of evolution in these digital worlds, but they rarely fit into the standard scientific narrative and are treated as obstacles to be overcome rather than interesting results. Bugs are fixed, experiments are refocused, and …