Requirements for Open-Ended Evolution in Natural and Artificial Systems

Publication details

Requirements for Open-Ended Evolution in Natural and Artificial Systems

Tim Taylor

2015

Abstract

Open-ended evolutionary dynamics remains an elusive goal for artificial evolutionary systems. Many ideas exist in the biological literature beyond the basic Darwinian requirements of variation, differential reproduction and inheritance. I argue that these ideas can be seen as aspects of five fundamental requirements for open-ended evolution: (1) robustly reproductive individuals, (2) a medium allowing the possible existence of a practically unlimited diversity of individuals and interactions, (3) individuals capable of producing more complex offspring, (4) mutational pathways to other viable individuals, and (5) drive for continued evolution. I briefly discuss implications of this view for the design of artificial systems with greater evolutionary potential.

Full text

Author preprint: pdf
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Presentation slides: pdf

Reference

Taylor, T. (2015). Requirements for Open-Ended Evolution in Natural and Artificial Systems. Presented at the EvoEvo Workshop at the European Conference on Artificial Life 2015 (ECAL 2015). Retrieved from https://arxiv.org/abs/1507.07403

BibTeX

@article{taylor2015requirements,
  author = {Taylor, Tim},
  title = {Requirements for Open-Ended Evolution in Natural and Artificial Systems},
  journal = {Presented at the EvoEvo Workshop at the European Conference on Artificial Life 2015 (ECAL 2015)},
  year = {2015},
  month = jul,
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/1507.07403},
  category = {workshop},
  keywords = {oee}
}

Note

Preprint on arXiv: arXiv:1507.07403

Presented at the EvoEvo Workshop at the European Conference on Artificial Life 2015 (ECAL 2015), University of York, United Kingdom, 24 July 2015.

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Channon, A., Bedau, M., Packard, N., & Taylor, T. (2024). Editorial Introduction to the 2024 Special Issue on Open-Ended Evolution. Artificial Life, 30(3), 300–301. https://doi.org/10.1162/artl_e_00445
PDF Full details
```
@article{channon2024editorial,
  author = {Channon, Alastair and Bedau, Mark and Packard, Norman and Taylor, Tim},
  title = {Editorial Introduction to the 2024 Special Issue on Open-Ended Evolution},
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PDF Full details
```
@article{taylor2021evolutionary,
  author = {Taylor, Tim},
  title = {Evolutionary Innovation Viewed as Novel Physical Phenomena and Hierarchical Systems Building},
  journal = {Presented at the Fourth Workshop on Open-Ended Evolution (OEE4) at the 2021 Conference on Artificial Life (ALIFE 2021)},
  year = {2021},
  month = jul,
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2107.09669},
  category = {workshop},
  keywords = {oee}
}
```
Taylor, T. (2020). The Importance of Open-Endedness (For the Sake of Open-Endedness). In J. Bongard, J. Lovato, L. Hebert-Dufrésne, R. Dasari, & L. Soros (Eds.), ALIFE 2020: Proceedings of the Artificial Life Conference 2020 (pp. 578–580). https://doi.org/10.1162/isal_a_00257
PDF Full details
```
@inproceedings{taylor2020importance,
  author = {Taylor, Tim},
  title = {The Importance of Open-Endedness (For the Sake of Open-Endedness)},
  booktitle = {ALIFE 2020: Proceedings of the Artificial Life Conference 2020},
  editor = {Bongard, Josh and Lovato, Juniper and Hebert-Dufrésne, Laurent and Dasari, Radhakrishna and Soros, Lisa},
  year = {2020},
  publisher = {{MIT} Press},
  pages = {578-580},
  doi = {10.1162/isal_a_00257},
  category = {conference},
  keywords = {oee}
}
```
Taylor, T. (2019). Evolutionary Innovations and Where to Find Them: Routes to Open-Ended Evolution in Natural and Artificial Systems. Artificial Life, 25(2), 207–224. https://doi.org/10.1162/artl_a_00290
PDF Full details
```
@article{taylor2019evolutionary,
  author = {Taylor, Tim},
  title = {Evolutionary Innovations and Where to Find Them: Routes to Open-Ended Evolution in Natural and Artificial Systems},
  journal = {Artificial Life},
  year = {2019},
  volume = {25},
  number = {2},
  pages = {207--224},
  publisher = {{MIT} Press Journals},
  doi = {10.1162/artl_a_00290},
  issn = {1064-5462},
  category = {journal},
  keywords = {oee}
}
```
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PDF Full details
```
@article{packard2019overview,
  author = {Packard, Norman and Bedau, Mark and Channon, Alastair and Ikegami, Takashi and Rasmussen, Steen and Stanley, Kenneth and Taylor, Tim},
  title = {An Overview of Open-Ended Evolution: Editorial Introduction to the Open-Ended Evolution II Special Issue},
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  issn = {1064-5462},
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}
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PDF Full details
```
@article{packard2019openended,
  author = {Packard, Norman and Bedau, Mark and Channon, Alastair and Ikegami, Takashi and Rasmussen, Steen and Stanley, Kenneth and Taylor, Tim},
  title = {Open-Ended Evolution and Open-Endedness: Editorial Introduction to the Open-Ended Evolution I Special Issue},
  journal = {Artificial Life},
  year = {2019},
  volume = {25},
  number = {1},
  pages = {1--3},
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  doi = {10.1162/artl_e_00282},
  issn = {1064-5462},
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Taylor, T. (2018). Routes to Open-Endedness in Evolutionary Systems. Presented at the Third Workshop on Open-Ended Evolution (OEE3) at the 2018 Conference on Artificial Life (ALIFE 2018). Retrieved from https://arxiv.org/abs/1806.01883v3
PDF Full details
```
@article{taylor2018routes,
  author = {Taylor, Tim},
  title = {Routes to Open-Endedness in Evolutionary Systems},
  journal = {Presented at the Third Workshop on Open-Ended Evolution (OEE3) at the 2018 Conference on Artificial Life (ALIFE 2018)},
  year = {2018},
  month = jul,
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/1806.01883v3},
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  keywords = {oee}
}
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Taylor, T., Bedau, M., Channon, A., Ackley, D., Banzhaf, W., Beslon, G., … Wiser, M. (2016). Open-Ended Evolution: Perspectives from the OEE Workshop in York. Artificial Life, 22(3), 408–423. https://doi.org/10.1162/artl_a_00210

PDF Full details

@article{taylor2016openended,
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  title = {Open-Ended Evolution: Perspectives from the {OEE} Workshop in {Y}ork},
  journal = {Artificial Life},
  year = {2016},
  publisher = {{MIT} Press Journals},
  volume = {22},
  number = {3},
  pages = {408--423},
  doi = {10.1162/artl_a_00210},
  category = {journal},
  keywords = {oee}
}

Taylor, T. (2014). Evolution in virtual worlds. In M. Grimshaw (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Virtuality (pp. 526–548). https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199826162.013.044
PDF Full details
```
@inbook{taylor2014evolution,
  title = {Evolution in virtual worlds},
  author = {Taylor, Tim},
  year = {2014},
  doi = {10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199826162.013.044},
  language = {English},
  isbn = {9780199826162},
  pages = {526--548},
  editor = {Grimshaw, Mark},
  booktitle = {The Oxford Handbook of Virtuality},
  publisher = {Oxford University Press},
  address = {United Kingdom},
  category = {chapter},
  keywords = {oee}
}
```
Taylor, T. (2012). Exploring the Concept of Open-Ended Evolution. In C. Adami, D. M. Bryson, C. Ofria, & R. T. Pennock (Eds.), Artificial Life 13: Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Conference on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems (pp. 540–541). MIT Press.
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```
@inproceedings{taylor2012exploring,
  author = {Taylor, Tim},
  title = {Exploring the Concept of Open-Ended Evolution},
  booktitle = {Artificial Life 13: Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Conference on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems},
  year = {2012},
  editor = {Adami, Christoph and Bryson, David M. and Ofria, Charles and Pennock, Robert T.},
  pages = {540--541},
  publisher = {{MIT} Press},
  category = {conference},
  keywords = {oee}
}
```
Taylor, T. (2004). Redrawing the Boundary between Organism and Environment. In J. Pollack, M. A. Bedau, P. Husbands, R. A. Watson, & T. Ikegami (Eds.), Artificial Life IX: Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems (pp. 268–273). https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/1429.003.0045
PDF Full details
```
@inproceedings{taylor2004redrawing,
  author = {Taylor, Tim},
  title = {Redrawing the Boundary between Organism and Environment},
  booktitle = {Artificial Life IX: Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems},
  year = {2004},
  editor = {Pollack, Jordan and Bedau, Mark A. and Husbands, Phil and Watson, Richard A. and Ikegami, Takashi},
  pages = {268-273},
  address = {Cambridge, MA},
  publisher = {{MIT} Press},
  doi = {10.7551/mitpress/1429.003.0045},
  category = {conference},
  keywords = {evoca, oee, meaning, agency}
}
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Taylor, T. (2003). Evolving Interaction in Artificial Systems: An historical overview and future directions. In P. McOwan, K. Dautenhahn, & C. L. Nehaniv (Eds.), Abstracts from the Evolvability and Interaction Symposium, held at Queen Mary, University of London, UK, in October 2003. University of Hertfordshire Computer Science Technical Report No. 393.
Full details
```
@incollection{taylor2003evolving,
  author = {Taylor, Tim},
  title = {Evolving Interaction in Artificial Systems: An historical overview and future directions},
  booktitle = {Abstracts from the Evolvability and Interaction Symposium, held at Queen Mary, University of London, UK, in October 2003},
  publisher = {University of Hertfordshire Computer Science Technical Report No.~393},
  year = {2003},
  month = oct,
  editor = {McOwan, Peter and Dautenhahn, Kerstin and Nehaniv, Chrystopher L.},
  category = {workshop},
  keywords = {evoca, history, oee}
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Taylor, T. (2001). Creativity in Evolution: Individuals, Interactions and Environments. In P. J. Bentley & D. W. Corne (Eds.), Creative Evolutionary Systems (pp. 79–108). https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-155860673-9/50037-9
PDF Full details
```
@incollection{taylor2001creativity,
  author = {Taylor, Tim},
  title = {Creativity in Evolution: Individuals, Interactions and Environments},
  booktitle = {Creative Evolutionary Systems},
  editor = {Bentley, Peter J and Corne, David W},
  chapter = {1},
  pages = {79--108},
  publisher = {Morgan Kaufmann},
  year = {2001},
  doi = {10.1016/b978-155860673-9/50037-9},
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  keywords = {creativity, oee}
}
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Taylor, T. (2000). Some Representational and Ecological Aspects of Evolvability. In C. L. Nehaniv (Ed.), Proceedings of the Evolvability Workshop at the the Seventh International Conference on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems (Artificial Life 7) (pp. 41–44). Retrieved from http://homepages.herts.ac.uk/ comqcln/al7ev/cnts.html
PDF Full details
```
@inproceedings{taylor2000some,
  author = {Taylor, Tim},
  title = {Some Representational and Ecological Aspects of Evolvability},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the Evolvability Workshop at the the Seventh International Conference on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems (Artificial Life 7)},
  year = {2000},
  editor = {Nehaniv, Chrystopher L.},
  pages = {41-44},
  url = {http://homepages.herts.ac.uk/~comqcln/al7ev/cnts.html},
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```
Taylor, T. J. (1999). From Artificial Evolution to Artificial Life (PhD thesis). School of Informatics, College of Science and Engineering, University of Edinburgh.
PDF Full details
```
@phdthesis{taylor1999artificial,
  author = {Taylor, Timothy John},
  title = {From Artificial Evolution to Artificial Life},
  school = {School of Informatics, College of Science and Engineering, University of Edinburgh},
  year = {1999},
  uri = {http://hdl.handle.net/1842/361},
  category = {dissertation},
  keywords = {selfrep, oee, cosmos}
}
```
Taylor, T. (1998). Nidus Design Document (Departmental Working Paper No. 269). Department of Artificial Intelligence, University of Edinburgh.
PDF Full details
```
@techreport{taylor1998nidus,
  author = {Taylor, Tim},
  title = {Nidus Design Document},
  institution = {Department of Artificial Intelligence, University of Edinburgh},
  year = {1998},
  type = {Departmental Working Paper},
  number = {269},
  month = jun,
  category = {techreport},
  keywords = {oee}
}
```