The pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum, exhibits several environmentally cued polyphenisms, in which discrete, alternative phenotypes are produced. At low-density, parthenogenetic females produce unwinged female progeny, but at high-density females produce progeny that develop with wings. These alternative phenotypes represent a solution to the competing demands of dispersal and reproduction. Males...

Artificial creatures form an increasingly important component of interactive computer games. Examples of such creatures exist which can interact with each other and the game player and learn from their experiences. However, we argue, the design of the underlying architecture and algorithms has to a large extent overlooked knowledge from psychology and cognitive sciences. We explore the integrat...

Sensors and internal states are often considered necessary components of any adaptively behaving organism, providing the information needed to adapt a creature’s behavior in response to conditions in its external or internal environment. But adaptive, survivalenhancing behavior is possible even in simple simulated creatures lacking all direct contact with their environment — evolutionarily shap...

Context-dependent adjustment of mating tactics can drastically increase the mating success of behaviourally flexible animals. We used the ant Cardiocondyla obscurior as a model system to study adaptive adjustment of male mating tactics. This species shows a male diphenism of wingless fighter males and peaceful winged males. Whereas the wingless males stay and exclusively mate in the maternal co...

One of the prevailing characteristics of natural life is autonomy. The field of Artificial Life has so far addressed the notion of autonomy mostly in terms of power and behavior. In this paper we attempt to extend the notion of autonomy to include also design and fabrication: We claim that not only should artificial creatures be able to operate untethered and without external guidance, but they...

Charles Darwin’s 1859 work On the Origin of Species contained no equations. But that does not mean mathematics has no role to play in the science of life; in fact, the field of biomathematics is burgeoning and has been for several decades. Ian Stewart’s new book does an admirable job of unfolding the mathematics undergirding so much of the research being carried out today in themany fields that...

A fundamental obstacle in evolutionary simulations is the necessity of designing more complex simulations to elicit more complex behaviors. We use a combat-based fitness measure to attempt to circumvent this problem. We have designed a simulation that simultaneously evolves the brains and bodies of creatures for one-on-one combat in a threedimensional environment with realistic physics. By givi...