Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!wuarchive!rex!uflorida!cs.fau.edu!tomh
From: tomh.bbs@shark.cs.fau.edu (Tom Holroyd)
Newsgroups: comp.theory.cell-automata
Subject: Something for the ants to do
Message-ID: <16mJX2w163w@shark.cs.fau.edu>
Date: 18 Feb 91 02:52:23 GMT
Sender: bbs@cs.fau.edu (Waffle BBS)
Organization: Florida Atlantic University
Lines: 29

If we want the ants to create some higher level organization,
they must cooperate with one another, as well as compete against
constraints in the environment and rival ant species.

Real ants form living bridges to cross large (to them) obstacles;
why not try to evolve some ants that cross simulated barriers?

Bees dance to inform other bees about food sources; how about
some alife bees that communicate similar info to other bees of
the same family?  Note that several families of bees need to
compete against each other to find the best communication
strategy.

I've seen too many "bugs" that evolve the ability to find "food"
efficiently.  Let's get out of the hunter-gatherer stage and try
to evolve some bugs that FARM.  Even one bug that raises a crop
and defends territory would count, since then the bug is cooperating
with the food species, leading to symbiosis.

Don't worry so much about deciding what the ants should be doing
at this stage; get them to cooperate effectively and new high-level
behaviors based on simple sub-behaviors should emerge almost by
themselves.

tomh@bambi.ccs.fau.edu
Tom Holroyd
Florida Atlantic University
Center for Complex Systems
"An anthill is a queen's way of making another queen."