Polyworld is a cross-platform (Linux, Mac OS X) program written by Larry Yaeger to evolve Artificial Intelligence through natural selection and evolutionary algorithms.
It shows a graphical environment using the Qt graphics toolkit and OpenGL, in which exists a population of trapezoid agents which search for food, mate, have offspring, and prey on each other. Typically the population is only in the hundreds, as each individual is rather complex and the environment consumes considerable computer resources. The graphical environment is necessary since the individuals actually move around the 2-D plane and the occasional barrier and must be able to "see." Since some basic abilities like eating carcasses or randomly generated food, seeing other individuals, mating or fighting with them etc. are possible, a number of interesting behaivours have been observed to spontaneously arise after prolonged evolution, such as cannibalism, predators and prey, and mimicry.
Each individual makes decisions based on a neural net using Hebbian learning; the neural net is derived from each individual's genome. The genome does not merely specify the wiring and weighting of the neurel nets, but also determines their size, speed, color, mutation rate and a number of other factors. The genome is randomly mutated at a set probability, which are also changed in descendant organisms.
External links
- SourceForge entry
- Yaeger's page on Polyworld
- Page with videos of Polyworld animations
- Google TechTalk about Polyworld
6_Polyworld_ForagingSwarming.mov
Author: LaTrobeGames
Keywords: 6 Polyworld ForagingSwarming
Added: November 24, 2008
David in Polyworld
I made this for a Geometry project
Author: cptkhaotic
Keywords: Polyworld Geometry
Added: July 12, 2008
Polyworld: Using Evolution to Design Artificial Intelligence
Google Tech Talks November, 8 2007 ABSTRACT This presentation is about a potential shortcut to artificial intelligence by trading mind-design for world-design using artificial evolution. Evolutionary algorithms are a pump for turning CPU cycles into brain designs. With exponentially increasing CPU cycles while our understanding of intelligence is almost a flat-line, the evolutionary route to AI is a centerpiece of most Kurzweilian singularity scenarios. This talk introduces the Polyworld artificial life simulator as well as results from our ongoing attempt to evolve artificial intelligence and further the Singularity. Polyworld is the brain child of Apple Computer Distinguished Scientist Larry Yaeger, who remains the primary developer of Polyworld: http://www.beanblossom.in.us/larryy/Polyworld.html Speaker: Virgil Griffith Virgil Griffith is a first year graduate student in Computation and Neural Systems at the California Institute of Technology. On weekdays he studies evolution, computational neuroscience, and artificial life. He did computer security work until his first year of university when his work got him sued for sedition and espionage. He then decided that security was probably not safest field to be in and he turned his life to science.
Author: googletechtalks
Keywords: google techtalks techtalk engedu talk talks googletechtalks education
Added: November 13, 2007
Polyworld - Foraging & Swarming
"The last decent quality video from a run of the original incarnation of Polyworld, and by far the most interesting. By this stage, the individual agent behaviors have ceased to be one-dimensional; i.e., I can no longer sum up the total life behavior of all agents in the simulation with a single word or phrase. Here we see agents foraging—orbiting food while they eat it, despite there being nothing built in to attract them to food. And a swarm of small agents that stay together, which is good for finding mates, even as the swarm drifts along, which is good for finding food. Look around the world, at the range of behaviors. The population is sustaining itself with its mating behaviors, staying right at the maximum population limit, yet it is no longer obvious what the full range of behaviors is. The next step, then, is to develop the statistical and information theoretical tools to quantify these behaviors and neural architecture and dynamics of the Polyworld agents, which is what my modern research agenda is all about." From: http://www.beanblossom.in.us/larryy/PolyworldMovies.html
Author: nudecybot
Keywords: polyworld foraging swarming alife simulation
Added: March 20, 2006