Evolution of Autopoiesis and Multicellularity in the Game of Life

TL;DR

This paper models biological concepts like autopoiesis and multicellularity within Conway's Game of Life, demonstrating that evolved seed patterns correlate with diverse autopoietic structures, advancing understanding of biological evolution through computational simulation.

Contribution

It extends a previous symbiosis model to incorporate autopoietic and multicellular structures, providing a novel computational analogy to biological life and evolution.

Findings

Evolved seed patterns correlate with autopoietic structure diversity.

Higher fitness is associated with increased multicellular autopoietic structures.

The model offers insights into the evolution of multicellularity and autopoiesis.

Abstract

Recently we introduced a model of symbiosis, Model-S, based on the evolution of seed patterns in Conway's Game of Life. In the model, the fitness of a seed pattern is measured by one-on-one competitions in the Immigration Game, a two-player variation of the Game of Life. Our previous article showed that Model-S can serve as a highly abstract, simplified model of biological life: (1) The initial seed pattern is analogous to a genome. (2) The changes as the game runs are analogous to the development of the phenome. (3) Tournament selection in Model-S is analogous to natural selection in biology. (4) The Immigration Game in Model-S is analogous to competition in biology. (5) The first three layers in Model-S are analogous to biological reproduction. (6) The fusion of seed patterns in Model-S is analogous to symbiosis. The current article takes this analogy two steps further: (7) Autopoietic structures in the Game of Life (still lifes, oscillators, and spaceships -- collectively known as ashes) are analogous to cells in biology. (8) The seed patterns in the Game of Life give rise to multiple, diverse, cooperating autopoietic structures, analogous to multicellular biological life. We use the apgsearch software (Ash Pattern Generator Search), developed by Adam Goucher for the study of ashes, to analyze autopoiesis and multicellularity in Model-S. We find that the fitness of evolved seed patterns in Model-S is highly correlated with the diversity and quantity of multicellular autopoietic structures.