Computer simulation of the Evolution process.

Question

Does anybody know about the scientifically based computer simulation of the Evolution process on Earth? Have the attempts been made to come up with such simulation, and what is the result?

Answer 1

Look into genetic algorithms.

Answer 2

In 1994 at Siggraph, Karl Sims presented a system to evolve virtual creatures using genetic algorithms. See the Siggraph paper (PDF) and some demos.

Answer 3

The real problem is that we don't understand what the majority of DNA does. For instance, it was recently learned that 'junk DNA' is actually of great importance to the way organisms are produced. Once we have a firm understanding of the way DNA works, it can become possible.

Answer 4

Let's look at a few hits.

• Evolution Lab: http://www.biologyinmotion.com/evol/index.html

• Evolution Simulator: http://www.truthtree.com/evolve.shtml

• EvoTutor: http://www.evotutor.org/

• Simulation of Biological Evolution in Structured Populations: http://www.agner.org/evolution/

• http://faculty.washington.edu/herronjc/SoftwareFolder/software.html

Remember, Evolution is the cornerstone of biology. It is simulated heavily.

Evolution depends on random events. It must be studied through simulation.

There used to be a great game-like software product, Sim Earth, that was a very sophisticated, scientifically deep simulation of evolutionary biology for non-scientists to learn from. It was not a game, since there was no end-state or goal.

Answer 5

You should look at the Noble Ape Project. From the website:

[Noble Ape] features a number of autonomous simulation components including a landscape simulation, biological simulation, weather simulation, sentient creature (Noble Ape) simulation and a simple intelligent-agent scripting language (ApeScript).

In addition to the ApeScript documentation on the Noble Ape site, ApeScript was also launched through Wikipedia to allow true language scrutiny through the computer language scholars and students reading through the Wikipedia language definitions.

Answer 6

An amusing diversion is a physics simulator with a strong bias toward artificial life called Breve. A similar project is Darwin@Home

Answer 7

Sorry.. I've reviewed all the references.. There is nothing even close that would resemble a comprehensive compute model of the scope I was asking for

Answer 8

Able, maybe you could explain in more detail what you're looking for, then. There is a whole area of research called "artificial life" that explores evolving systems in the hope of getting insight into real evolution.

But if what you're looking for is an actual simulation that actually attempts to replicate the evolution of life on Earth, then the answer is no, and it's unlikely there ever will be one, failing the possibility of a Tipler Omega. The configuration space is too large --- you'd need, at the least, to try to include a computation for every living thing that ever existed, and even then you'd need multiple runs to account for random events --- we're all descended from a particular female human in West Africa about 140Kyears ago, the so called "mitochondrial Eve." But if the saber tooth had jumped Eve's momma instead of Betty Rubble, we'd have a slightly different line of descent. Your simulation would have to account for all those sorts of random events too. What's more, at that point you're deep into the world of nonlinear (complex) systems theory, or "chaos": it's extremely likely that you couldn't successfully simulate evolution unless you simulated every molecule on Earth and it would still be sensitively dependent on initial conditions, so you still couldn't expect a close match.

Update: A commenter notes that there is controversy over the specifics of this "mitochondrial Eve" theory, but that is, in any case, not an essential point here. The central point is that small random events can change the outcome of a history of this sort in radical ways.

The commenter might also want to look up the definition of the word "hoax"; he is apparently under the misapprehension that "hoax" means "I don't agree with the conclusion."

Answer 9

I’m not taking about the games .. I know about them. I’m talking about the real deeply scientifically based simulation where starting point is a leaving cell … all the way to the human intelligence. – ablei2000.myopenid.com

The computational power to simulate trillions of organisms (some composed of trillions of cells, which are themselves composed of billions of moving parts) over billions of years is beyond our computing capability at this time and for the foreseeable future.

Such a massive simulation is not needed to validate the concept, nor would it produce the same results - evolution occurs via natural selection of organisms with random mutations.

Also, re-running everything would result in a completely different set of random mutations, and while some things would be similar (see convergent evolution) you wouldn't wind up with the same set of species.

Answer 10

You need to clarify your question. First, do you mean "simulation of Evolution", or "simulation of the Evolution process"? As others have pointed out, it's impossible to simulate the evolution that has occurred on Earth to date. On the other hand, simulation of the evolution process raises too many questions to answer clearly either. The fundamental "evolution process" is natural selection, and simulating that is really very easy; "The Game Of Life" simulates natural selection. But simulating it in a useful way (that is, one that offers insights into the biological processes) is very hard. (To simplify absurdly, "natural selection" implies an environment that is doing the selection, and the biological environment is vastly more complicated than can be simulated by a program.)

Where computer simulations have proved particularly useful is at an intermediate level -- evaluating different processes that are part of natural selection. An example that is (relatively!) trivial at the computational level would be kin selection. J.B.S. Haldane said, "I would lay down my life for two brothers or eight cousins". You can use programs to make predictions on things like, say, frequency-dependent selection vs. overdominant selection.

Using programs to do this sort of evolutionary process testing is a large field, and has no one "result". If you're genuinely interested, I suggest you refine your question and ask again, with more detail on what it is you're trying to learn.

If you're looking for a simple answer, the "result" of the programs that simulate evolutionary processes is that evolutionary theory works extraordinarily well to explain everything we see in biology.

Answer 11

I’m sorry …but I thought I was crystal clear asking about the “Evolution process on Earth” and then later talking about the “starting point is a leaving cell … all the way to the human intelligence” You all quietly replaced the evolution process with “natural selection”. This is not the same things. Evolution is based on random mutation and on not random natural selection. Random mutation can be computer simulated based on the current scientific knowledge of the probabilities of the neutral, positive and negative mutations in the leaving things. Natural selection can be derived from the historical knowledge of the environment on Earth, etc.

Answer 12

Take a look also at the project Tierra written by Thomas Ray.

He's a biologist who wanted to simulate the process of evolution itself. He managed to create a damn good program where from one simple organism you see after a few generation new behaviors appearing such as prey, predator, parasite and even co-evolution.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tierra_(computer_simulation)

And specially his website : http://life.ou.edu/tierra/

Answer 13

It appears that the poster is seeking a "Guided" evolution which produces something similar to the observed outcome.

I agree that it would be extremely unlikely to produce a replica of the observed Earth (or even something superficially similar) by applying an evolutionary model with stochastic injections. I don't believe it's impossible to produce something similar by employing an evolutionary model with choosen event injections. In fact, since it actually happened, there should be some set of events that could be added to the simulation that corresponded to the initial random event which produces the exact outcome.

While I think this sort of thing is still well beyond us computationally I don't think it will be for ever. This would be an interesting way to attempt to find approximate answers to questions regarding gaps in historical (archeological, geological) data. It would essentially be a computational way to produce concrete testable hypotheses. It might not even be too different from the way we do it inside our heads.

Answer 14

Wise people say that the only possible simulation of the Universe (in this Universe) is the Universe itself. Some say that this Universe IS a computational simulation. It is known that this simulation is very scientific. Your question might as well be paraphrased like "Does anyone know about a software that I can use to become a God?"

Even if you had this piece of software (and that would not be in this world), you would not be able to do any good with it. Because it wouldn't be in this world and then, if you are not in this world, you aren't really at all, are you?

Answer 15

DO NOT GIVE UP!!!!!!the game u would want is called EVOLVE 4.0 and is right hear http://www.stauffercom.com/evolve4/ if u can learn the program K FORTH (and i have to warn u it is VERY complex) u can make an infinite amount of possible electronic organisms, there really is no limit to this program. VERY GOOD EVOLUTION SIM!! enjoy :) p.s. not really "like earth" but the K FORTH is VERY good similar to DNA structure.

Answer 16

Altruist: http://www.agner.org/evolution/