We describe a simple artificial chemistry which abstracts a small number of key features from the origin of life "replicator world" hypotheses. We report how this can already give rise to moderately complex and counter-intuitive evolutionary phenomena, including macro- evolutionary deterioration in replication fidelity (which corresponds to intrinsic replicator fitness in this model). We briefly describe the extension of this model to incorporate a higher, protocell, level of selection. We
show that the interaction between the two levels of selection then serves to control parasitic exploitation at the molecular level, while still significantly constraining accessible evolutionary trajectories at the protocell level. We conclude with a brief discussion of the implications for further work.
Item Type:
Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Event Type:
Conference
Refereed:
Yes
Additional Information:
The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com
Advances in Artificial Life: Proceedings of the 9th European Conference, ECAL 2007. Lecture Notes in Computer Science
4648.
Springer Berlin / Heidelberg. ISBN 978-3-540-74912-7