Avida (software)

Last updated
Original author(s) Charles Ofria, Chris Adami
Developer(s) Charles Ofria
Stable release
2.14.0 / February 6, 2014;11 years ago (2014-02-06) [1]
Written in C++, Objective-C
Operating system Microsoft Windows 7 or later, macOS 10.8 or later, Linux / Unix.
Type Artificial life
License LGPL

Avida is an artificial life software platform to study the evolutionary biology of self-replicating and evolving computer programs (digital organisms). Avida is under active development by Charles Ofria's Digital Evolution Lab at Michigan State University; the first version of Avida was designed in 1993 by Ofria, Chris Adami and C. Titus Brown at Caltech, and has been fully reengineered by Ofria on multiple occasions since then. The software was originally inspired by the Tierra system.

Contents

Design principles

Tierra simulated an evolutionary system by introducing computer programs that competed for computer resources, specifically processor (CPU) time and access to main memory. In this respect it was similar to Core Wars, but differed in that the programs being run in the simulation were able to modify themselves, and thereby evolve. Tierra's programs were artificial life organisms.[ citation needed ]

Unlike Tierra, Avida assigns every digital organism its own protected region of memory, and executes it with a separate virtual CPU. By default, other digital organisms cannot access this memory space, neither for reading nor for writing, and cannot execute code that is not in their own memory space.

A second major difference is that the virtual CPUs of different organisms can run at different speeds, such that one organism executes, for example, twice as many instructions in the same time interval as another organism. The speed at which a virtual CPU runs is determined by a number of factors, but most importantly, by the tasks that the organism performs: logical computations that the organisms can carry out to reap extra CPU speed as bonus.

Use in research

Adami and Ofria, in collaboration with others, have used Avida to conduct research in digital evolution, and the scientific journals Nature and Science have published four of their papers.

The 2003 paper "The Evolutionary Origin of Complex Features" describes the evolution of a mathematical equals operation from simpler bitwise operations. [2]

Use in education

Avida-ED
Original author(s) Jeff Clune
Developer(s) Diane J. Blackwood
Stable release
3 / October 10, 2021;3 years ago (2021-10-10) [3]
Written in C++, JavaScript
Type Artificial life
License GPL
WebsiteMain: avida-ed.msu.edu , Mirror: avida-ed-mirror1.beacon-center.org

The Avida-ED project (Avida-ED) uses the Avida software platform within a simplified graphical user interface suitable for use in evolution education instruction at the high school and undergraduate college level, and provides freely available software, documentation, tutorials, lesson plans, and other course materials. [4] [5] The Avida-ED software runs as a web application in the browser, with the user interface implemented in JavaScript and Avida compiled to JavaScript using Emscripten, making the software broadly compatible with devices commonly used in classrooms. [6] This approach has been shown to be effective in improving students' understanding of evolution. [7] [8] [9] The Avida-ED project was the winner of the 2017 International Society for Artificial Life Education and Outreach Award. [10]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Avida Digital Life Platform download". sourceforge.net. 6 February 2014. Retrieved 2021-03-27.
  2. ↑ Lenski, R. E.; Ofria, C.; Pennock, R. T.; Adami, C. (2003). "The evolutionary origin of complex features" (PDF). Nature. 423 (6936): 139–144. Bibcode:2003Natur.423..139L. doi:10.1038/nature01568. PMID   12736677. S2CID   4401833. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-01-21. Retrieved 2012-01-30.
  3. ↑ "Avida-ED User Interface". github.com. Retrieved 2021-10-11.
  4. ↑ Smith, James J.; Johnson, Wendy R.; Lark, Amy M.; Mead, Louise S.; Wiser, Michael J.; Pennock, Robert T. (2016). "An Avida-ED digital evolution curriculum for undergraduate biology". Evolution: Education and Outreach. 9 (1). doi: 10.1186/s12052-016-0060-0 . ISSN   1936-6426.
  5. ↑ Anonymous (5 February 2018). "Online tool speeds up evolution education". ScienceDaily. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
  6. ↑ Taylor, Tim; Auerbach, Joshua E.; Bongard, Josh; Clune, Jeff; Hickinbotham, Simon; Ofria, Charles; Oka, Mizuki; Risi, Sebastian; Stanley, Kenneth O.; Yosinski, Jason (2016). "WebAL Comes of Age: A Review of the First 21 Years of Artificial Life on the Web" (PDF). Artificial Life. 22 (3): 364–407. doi:10.1162/ARTL_a_00211. hdl: 2241/00154082 . ISSN   1064-5462. PMID   27472416. S2CID   12092129.
  7. ↑ Pennock, Robert T.; Smith, James J.; Mead, Louise S.; Richmond, Gail; Lark, Amy (2018). "Exploring the Relationship between Experiences with Digital Evolution and Students' Scientific Understanding and Acceptance of Evolution". The American Biology Teacher. 80 (2): 74–86. doi:10.1525/abt.2018.80.2.74. ISSN   0002-7685. S2CID   52260399.
  8. ↑ Abi Abdallah, Delbert S.; Fonner, Christopher W.; Lax, Neil C.; Babeji, Matthew R.; Palé, Fatimata A. (2020). "Evaluating the Use of Avida-ED Digital Organisms to Teach Evolution & Natural Selection". The American Biology Teacher. 82 (2): 114–119. doi: 10.1525/abt.2020.82.2.114 . ISSN   0002-7685.
  9. ↑ Pennock, Robert T.; Richmond, Gail; Lark, Amy (2014). "Modeling Evolution in the Classroom". The American Biology Teacher. 76 (7): 450–454. doi:10.1525/abt.2014.76.7.6. ISSN   0002-7685. S2CID   83720929.
  10. ↑ Taylor, Tim (16 September 2017). "2017 ISAL Awards: Winners - Artificial Life". Artificial Life. Retrieved 3 July 2021.

Scientific publications featuring Avida

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.