Electronic Life Ecosystem

In Electronic Life (Eloquent Javascript, Chapter 7), virtual creatures struggle to survive in a hardcoded environment where they perform different roles like stationary producers and primary consumers. The digital ecosystem which emerges from the simple interactions between these creatures bears slight resemblances to real life. For instance, predator-prey population dynamics can be observed.

In my Javascript implementation of Electronic Life, the world map is much larger and is initially seeded only with simulated plant life. These plants have a small chance for their offspring to randomly become a different type, approximating evolution, although their behaviours are hardcoded. For evolving neural network creatures that are not hardcoded, you can check out my later prototype.

Over time, a robust ecosystem emerges. However, after running for a very prolonged period, usually the ecosystem fails as producers overwhelm consumers or one species drives the others to extinction. Given that all "species" are hardcoded, any changes in the population will likely be repeatable in other instances of the simulation.