Evolution Generator Program

Hi, Percy.I made the word "science" (actually "sCiEncE") in 54 generations, using 5 offspring per parent and 1 mutation per offspring. I also used a rule where I always selected 4 individuals to contribute to the next population.What's interesting to me about it is that there seemed to be about three quirks:

1. It took about 10 generations before I got my first matching letter.
2. It took a long time (I can't remember how long) to get from 6 correct letters to 7.
3. Once you get to the target sequence, it's impossible to drive it to fixation, because the offspring always mutate.

The first two I think are real quirks of evolution: the first template on which evolution could work would have to have been generated randomly, and fine-tuning (6 to 7 letters) would be hard to stabilize.The last one might also be a real quirk of evolution (the difficulty of driving a trait to absolute fixation); but I think it's more a quirk of the generator. Maybe you could allow a range of mutations in each offspring, instead of saying exactly how many? So, instead of saying "1 mutation per individual," it could be "0-1" or "0-2."I have no idea how difficult that might be to program, because I know nothing about programming.{AbE: Also, maybe the possibility of a moving target sequence would make it more realistic?}Edited by Bluejay, : Marked addition

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-Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus)Darwin loves you.

Hi, Percy.I just noticed a glitch. I tried it with "2 offspring per parent," and the check box unchecks after each generation. It doesn't happen for 1, 5 or 10 offspring: just for 2.

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-Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus)Darwin loves you.

Hi, ICANT.Percy already answered, but I thought I would provide an extra conceptual explanation. The selection process is not supposed to be random. If you randomize it, you remove the benefit of selection from the model, and all you get is random evolution, which is not what the ToE proposes.Random mutation + random selection = random evolution.Random mutation + discriminate selection = evolution proposed by ToE.I hope that helped.

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-Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus)Darwin loves you.

Hi, Percy.I made the entire alphabet in 65 generations, with 10 offspring per parent, using the rule that I select all individuals with the highest number of matches each generation, and by dialing down the mutation rate when the next generation didn't improve over the last. I also set a ceiling of selecting 15 individuals, because 150 is a huge generation to deal with.The whole thing took about 15 minutes.(P.S. I've just started studying this week for my candidacy exams, so the insertion of occasional mindless, monotonous things in the middle of my study day is a nice break for my brain. )

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-Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus)Darwin loves you.