Computer ‘Beings’ Evolve as Society

Tracy Staedter in Discovery News:

Computerculture_zoomMillions of computer-generated entities that live and die by natural selection could reveal how our own culture and language evolve.

The software agents are part of a project called NEW TIES (New and Emergent World Models Through Individual, Evolutionary, and Social Learning), which draws on the expertise of five European research institutions to push computer simulation of artificial worlds further than ever before.

The joint computer project not only reproduces individual and evolutionary learning, but also social learning.

“Social learning is these guys telling each other what they learn on their own. One is learning about hot and cold and another is learning about soft and hard.”

“They exchange knowledge and save effort,” explained project coordinator Gusz Eiben, a professor of artificial intelligence at the Vrije University, Amsterdam.

Understanding gleaned from such a project could advance machine learning for a range of applications.

More here.