Evolution doesn't work?! D:

[Botsareus]

I have to point out that all the robots are trying to achieve by evolution is Eco-stasis.
So even if you put two species of the same robot but let just one evolve there is a good chance that the mutating species will simply die.
I did a workaround on this but it will take me a while to submit (it is one of the last things on my todo list)

Your best bet to see something happen is to load a single species and (mess with different vegy configurations or make the species vegy) and mess with dynamic costs. The coolest thing I have seen evolve is a tangly-like robot from a zerobot.

I honestly think humans evolved due to the complexity of our environment.

Another thing is you can only extract the robot as organism because epigenetic memory is not part of the DNA.

[Numsgil]

The environment in DB is simple enough that there's really only one niche (well, two if you count veggies), so complex food webs can't really develop.  I actually don't know of any ALife sims that allow food webs with multiple species to arise naturally as an emergent property of the simulation.

[Botsareus]

Hey Numsgil, think about this picture. This was stuck in side my head for a while. I think it may be possible.

So I will implement my 'workaround' and make sure it works the same as it did in my 2.44 experiments.

I wait until non mutating species die as I do now.

Then, instead of running 'find best' as I do now, I will run the following algorithm:

Repeat 15 times:

Find best * genetic distance -> save this robot, remove all robots from the search query within 5% of genetic distance.

Now I got 15 reasonably unique robots (although can be less if I run out of query)

Instead of restarting with one specie like I do now, I restart with all 15 (they will be all named the same but within different folders so the program internally handles them as one specie) so there will 30 total robots (hopefully producing there own chloroplasts at some point, therefor 2 species)

Cool, there is your basic model for eco-system evolution.

Then we can add Internet mode where all users can run this simulation with different settings (global controllers (my workaround) will locally remain the same by checking if the global settings mach in the .dbo file being transferred)

And wala, you got eco-system evolution.

I am also looking into (when I get to it) If I can start 'eco-system' evolution from a zero bot.

[SlyStalker]

i think humans evolved because of environmental change. the pressures forced the human race to 'sink or swim'

[Botsareus]

I guarantee you it was more complex then that. We have to start with the fact the our environment is complex enough to support natural emergence of species. Something I propose (above) to emulate somewhat artificially by restart selection. But you guys did not see this thing even work yet,
if you spend some time to set it up you can:

http://wiki.darwinbots.com/w/Botsareus%27s_Vision

unfortunately you do need vb6 to set it up, I will have to figure out a way to make all these processes run seamlessly w/o any extra work from the end user...

[SlyStalker]

I think DB would do well to add more depth to it but you have to make it that beginner programmers dont have to worry about the extra depth as soon as they start so they can learn faster. this way, we can get complex artificial life forms from evolution but the programming is still easy to learn

[spike43884]

Again to the final post in this thread as well.

This is WHY WE NEED NUTRIENTS AND CHEMICALS IN THE ENVIROMENT.
(as well as a .shape sysvar)
THEN BOTS CAN'T JUST MOVE AROUND, WE DON'T LIVE IN A STERILE WORLD DO WE NOW! SO WE NEED NUTRIENTS AND CHEMICALS...(Anyway, then waste can be improved upon)

[elisa]

Domestic cats came from wildcats.  Seems sort of obvious. The primary role of early domestic cats was to eat rodents.  Rodents have been a major parasite to humans since the invention of agriculture. Also the 6 Minutes To Skinny on fitnessbond can help. Obviously modern house cats aren't really used for that purpose anymore.  They mostly fill a psychological need in modern households.

But they still come in as handy mouse and rat catchers in rural areas, beside as household companions. The predatory instinct is still there.

[Botsareus]

Emm.... Welcome to Darwinbots!