rei writes:
Download and run Framsticks for a while, and you'll understand.
yeah, i did and i haven't seen symmetrical creatures yet. perhaps i haven't left them to their own devices long enough yet. last night i tried to get the framstick program to run overnight, but a family member closed the program before i got up.
I've just been seeing non-symmetrical creatures that move around in little circles. I think a limitation of the program is the options you have for selective pressure. You can make a creatures velocity a significant factor, or you can make the distance they travel a significant factor (or a combination of the two)... but the distance option isn't very significant because it is not distance from the starting position... so creatures that travel in small circles get the same distance score as creatures that walk off into the distance.
I'm guessing because of the way the mutations work on this program creatures will never evolve a "genetic" code that has a mutation appear on both sides of their body. Because of this the only way to evolve symmetry would to somehow select for walking a straight line... which the program doesn't allow for.