1997-98
NEW MEXICO
HIGH SCHOOL
SUPERCOMPUTING CHALLENGE
TEAM ABSTRACT
099
SANTA FE PREPARATORY SCHOOL
NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN SOFTWARE
A CASE OF SHARKS AND MINNOWS
For this project, we hope to help a simple community of computer-life to adapt and evolve. We will use Darwin’s theory of natural selection, coupled with the general theory of evolution in conjunction with crossovers and mutations to produce a generated ecosystem that evolves in a realistic way. We hope to produce a community that proves stable over time.
In terms of process, we hope to begin with a simple environment, perhaps fish and algae living on a cellular automaton lattice. By using C++ we hope to evolve the fish to eat the algae for survival. Once this has been mastered, we will move on to a more complex situation, for example, fish and algae with a predator involved. Both species would then have to evolve via reproduction of the fittest with random mutations and possibly sexual recombination It is in the products of these couplings that we will see the effects of random mutation and genetic crossovers. Eventually we hope to have created an environment with as many as four or five species involved in a predator/prey food chain of sorts. Perhaps these animals will be of our own creation and perhaps they will be of terrestrial origin.
Once we have reached our ultimate goal - a stable community of several species - we will package our finished product into an interface of minimal complexity, using C++, that is capable of maintaining a large community of cyber-life.