Tag Archives: biology

“Virtual Triops” are first creatures, in our virtual lab, changing their morphology and behavior as result of Natural Selection. They have 3 proximity sensors “eyes” and a vertical sensor to maintain the horizontal plane. Each eye gives the distance to the next piece of food to a very simple, unsupervised learning, neural network that combines all data coming in one impulse toward the target (the food). At the very beginning, when a VIRTUAL TRIOP borns the first time, with no parents, it is in “learning mode” and eyes position is randomly generated. The Virtual Triop has only 10 minutes to discover and catch the first piece of food. If it is not able to catch the food it will die. The Virtual Triop will try to find the right weights for its neural network by tentative using a very simple unsupervised learning algorithm. If it will be successful, will toggle in its “real virtual life” state. If it will continue to live, eating enough, each 6 hours it will breed and its offspring will receive the same genotype, with the eyes disposal and the neural network weights plus a percentage “error” above each parameter. The error assures that offspring will be a little bit different than the parent and the Natural Selection will do the rest. Generation after generation Virtual Triops will co-evolve together all others creatures competing for the same food. At present, after about 240 generations, evolved Virtual Triops are enough fast and precise to compete with the very old …