Gold Medal Software 1/Gold Medal Software Volume 1 (Gold Medal) (1994).iso/graphics/tierra40.arj/DOC/ANNOUNCE.40

Text File | 1992-09-11 | 20KB | 427 lines

                         TIERRA UPDATE
             V4.0, September 1992:

This message contains:

1) Availability of Tierra V4.0 Source Code
   a) by ftp
   b) by snail mail on disk
2) Bug Fixes
3) Three New Instruction Sets Implemented
4) New Memory Allocator Installed by Chris Stephenson of IBM
5) Full Memory Protection Implemented
6) Virtual Debugger Enhanced
7) Diversity Tool Enhanced
8) Tierra Display Color Mapping
9) Alive Variable Changed
10) CM5 Port
11) Future Phylogeny
12) Tierra in the News
13) Tierra Publications
14) Mailing Lists
15) What Tierra Is (If you don't know what Tierra is, read this first)

1) Availability of Tierra V4.0 Source Code

     The Tierra V4.0 source code; and the source code, and DOS executables of
all tools is available now.  Please note that the source code in the ftp
site and the source code provided on disk will each compile and run on either
DOS or UNIX platforms.  It is exactly the same source code in either case.
The DOS executables are available only on disk, and can not be freely
distributed.

     If you purchase this program on disk, thank you for your support.
If you obtain the source code through the net or friends, we invite you to
contribute an amount that represents the program's worth to you.  You may
make a check in US dollars payable to Virtual Life, and mail the check to
one of the two addresses listed below.

   a) by ftp

     If you use the software, be sure to pick up new versions from the ftp
site.  The source in the ftp site will be replaced on a roughly monthly or
bi-monthly basis.

     The complete source code and documentation (but not executables) is
available by anonymous ftp at:

tierra.slhs.udel.edu [128.175.41.34] and
  life.slhs.udel.edu [128.175.41.33]

in the directories: almond/, beagle/, doc/, and tierra/.

To get it, ftp to tierra or life, log in as user "anonymous" and give your
email address (eg. [e-mail]) as a password.  Be sure to transfer binaries
in binary mode (it is safe to transfer everything in binary mode).
Each directory contains a compressed tar file (filename.tar.Z) and a SRC
directory that contains all the files in raw ascii format.  You can just
pick up the .tar.Z files, and they will expand into the complete directory
structure with the following commands (Unix only):

uncompress tierra.tar.Z
tar oxvf tierra.tar

   b) by snail mail on disk

     The source code, documentation and the beagle.exe file can be distributed
freely, however, the executables (the .exe files in DOS) are for sale and
cannot be freely distributed (with the exeception of beagle.exe).

     If you do not have ftp access you may obtain everything on DOS disks
by making a check for $65 (US dollars drawn on a US bank) payable to
Virtual Life.  $20 for upgrade from earlier version (please specify your
serial number and version number).  Specify 3.5" or 5.25" disks.  Send the
check to one of the following addresses:

Tom Ray                  (January through August)
Santa Fe Institute
1660 Old Pecos Trail
Suite A
Santa Fe, NM 87501

Virtual Life             (September through December)
P.O. Box 625
Newark, Delaware 19715

     The DOS disks contain everything but ALmond (ALmond can be provided on
disk by request, but it only runs on a Unix platform).  The disks include DOS
executables, source code and documentation.  The DOS disks include an easy
installation program.  This is the same source code available in the ftp
site.  If you have ftp access, there is no need to buy the disks.

2) Bug Fixes

new in V4.0:

call(), jmp(), jmpb() - for each of these instructions, if there was no
     template following the instruction, the instruction pointer failed
     to increment, so the cpu would hang on the instruction.  This has
     been fixed in V4.0.

moviab() - (renamed to movii) this instruction looks to see if the target
     address is not in the daughter cell, in which case it calls MutBookeep()
     to keep track of genetic changes caused in the target creature.  Before
     V4.0, it did not look at changes to the byte following the daughter cell,
     this has been fixed.

break files - previous to V4.0, if the Tierra program was terminated by a
     system crash, or by the Q command, it would not be possible to fully
     recover by restarting the simulator.  The reason was that when restarted,
     the simulator would start the clock from the last system save, but would
     append birth death records to the end of the break.X files.  This meant
     that the part of the break files produced after the crash would be
     invalid.  This has been corrected in V4.0 by saving the file position
     pointer in the soup_out file.

diverse - in earlier releases, there was a bias in the calculation of the
     average age of the genotypes towards higher values.  This has been
     corrected, and it is believed that all of the statistics put out by
     this tool are now valid.

new in V3.13:

adr() - the parse function for the adr instruction, previous to V3.13, set
     is.iip = 0, which meant that the instruction pointer would not increment.
     This means that if ever the adr instruction were executed, the virtual
     cpu would hang on this instruction.  This has been fixed in V3.13.

GarbageCollectGB() - previous to V3.13, this function (in bookeep.c) caused
     some empty .gen files to be created, which would clutter up the genebank
     directory.  This has been fixed.

genotype histogram - there were some problems with the genotype histogram
     display in V3.12, these have been fixed.

3) Three New Instruction Sets Implemented

     The Tierra simulator now comes with four complete instruction sets,
the original and three new ones.  The three new sets came out of a series
of meetings held by the Tierra group at the Santa Fe Institute over the
summer.  These meetings were attended by Tom Ray, Dan Pirone, Kurt Thearling,
Chris Stephenson and Walter Tackett.  The new instruction sets are designed
to be more suitable for general purpose computation.  They overcome some of
the obvious weaknesses of the original set.  Specifically, they allow for
movement of data between the soup and the cpu registers, and they provide
I/O services.  In addition, they include some important biological features.
Specifically, they provide facilites for inter-cellular communication.  They
also allow for the transmittal of non-genetic information between mother
and daughter, and they allow the mother cell to force the daughter cell to
differentiate, by controlling where the instruction pointer starts in the
daughter cell.

4) New Memory Allocator Installed by Chris Stephenson of IBM

Chris Stephenson of the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center
([e-mail]) has contributed a new memory allocator to Tierra,
based on a cartesian tree scheme that he developed.  The new allocator is
more efficient than the old and provides a variety of options for controlling
where offspring are placed.  Free blocks are maintained in a two dimensional
binary tree, in which daughter blocks can not be larger than their parents,
and blocks are ordered from left to right according to their position in
memory.  The options are provided through the soup_in variable MalMode:

MalMode = 1 0 = first fit, 1 = better fit, 2 = random preference,
# 3 = near mother's address, 4 = near dx address, 5 = near top of stack address

5) Full Memory Protection Implemented

     The memory protection options used to create the "cell membranes"
around creatures now allow full read, write or execute protection.  The
two forms of protection, with and without membranes, are controlled by
two soup_in variables.

6) Virtual Debugger Enhanced

     The virtual debugger has been enhanced by a tracking feature which
will allow you to either follow exclusively the execution of a single cell,
or to swap between execution of cells as the slicer swaps.

7) Diversity Tool Enhanced

     The diversity tool has been enhanced in two way.  It optionally
calculates an average of each of the diversity indicies, over a user defined
interval, and outputs only the cumulative averages at the end of each
interval.  Otherwise it may output the diversity indices after each birth
and death.  Outputting only the averages greatly reduces the volume of output.
The other enhancement is a frequency filter which allows the diversity
indices to be calculated on the basis of only size or genotype classes with
at least some user defined number of individuals.  The default is two
individuals.  This means that the calculations will not include the numerous
mutants of which there are only a single individual.  This prevents the
diversity indices from being dominated by the large number of inviable
mutants that always exist in the populations.

8) Tierra Display Color Mapping

     In order to facilitate the needs of a user running Tierra on an LCD
display, the mapping of colors in the Tierra standard display are now
configurable by means of an ascii file called tcolors.cfg.

9) Alive Variable Changed

     The alive soup_in variable that controls the length of a run now
counts generations rather than millions of cpu cycles.  This has been done
to provide a control that is more comparable across instruction sets.

10) CM5 Port

     Kurt Thearling of Thinking Machines Corp. is working on a port of
Tierra to the new CM5.  This will be a true MIMD port: some processors will
run the simulator while other processors will run the genebanker.  The port
is based on an archipelago model, in which each Tierra processor will run
a compete Tierra soup.  However, creatures will be able to migrate between
processors through the dispersal of offspring.

11) Future Phylogeny

     At the moment, the primary effort in new code development is dedicated
to an extension to the genebanker that will produce an ironclad phylogeny.
The requires that we trace the genetic source of every instruction written
into every creature.  Stay tuned this project is projected to be completed
by the end of September 1992.

12) Tierra in the News

The Tierra Simulator has been widely reported in the media.  Below is a
list of most of the national or international reports that I am aware of.
If you know of some news report not on this list, please send me a hard
copy.

Nature (John Maynard Smith, UK) February 27, 1992: ``Byte-sized evolution.
...we badly need a comparative biology.  So far, we have been able to study
only one evolving system and we cannot wait for interstellar flight to
provide us with a second.  If we want to discover generalizations about
evolving systems, we will have to look at artificial ones.  Ray's study is a
good start.''

Science (Mitchell Waldrop, USA) August 21, 1992: ``Artificial Life's Rich
Harvest, Startlingly realistic simulations of organisms, ecosystems, and
evolution are unfolding on computer screens as researchers try to recreate
the dynamics of living things.''

New York Times (Malcolm Browne, USA) August 27, 1991: ``Lively Computer
Creation Blurs Definition of Life.  Software forms, obeying Darwin's rules,
vie to avoid the `reaper'.''

Whole Earth Review (Steven Levy, USA) Fall 1992: ``Artificial Life, The
Quest for a New Creation.''  Reprinted from a book of the same name published
by Pantheon Books.

Science News (John Travis, USA) August 10, 1991: ``Digital Darwinism:
Electronic Ecosystem.  Evolving `life' flourishes and surprises in a
novel electronic world''.

Nature (Laurence Hurst & Richard Dawkins, UK) May 21, 1992:
``Life in a test tube.''

Scientific American (John Rennie, USA) January 1992: ``Cybernetic Parasites...
Tierra... has been hailed as the most sophisticated artificial-life program
yet developed...''

New Scientist (Roger Lewin, UK) February 22, 1992: ``Life and death in a
digital world.  No one can turn back the evolutionary clock, but we can
follow the fate of a rich menagerie of artificial organisms as they evolve
in a model world.''

The Economist (Anon, UK) January 4, 1992: ``The meaning of `life'.
In order to understand the origin of life, scientists are switching from the
chemistry set to the computer.  In the process, they are beginning to
understand what it means to be alive.''

Release 1.0 (Esther Dyson, US) April 28, 1992: ``Artificial Worlds: A
Field Scientist in Tierra Cognita.''

Guardian (Jocelyn Paine, UK) January 9, 1992: ``Unravelling the loop in the
primordial soup.  Tierran machine code is so adaptable it survives.  Jocelyn
Paine charts the evolution of artificial life within the computer.''

Asahi (Katsura Hattori, Japan) September 15, 1992: Title in Japanese
characters.

Actuel (Ariel Kyrou, France) April 1992: ``Visite Guidee Aux Extremes De
La Science: La Vie Artificielle.  Etes-vous pr\^{e}ts \`{a} entrer dans
l'univers vertigineux de la vie artificielle?  Un champ scientifique tout neuf
sur lequel se penchent les grosses t\^{e}tes et les Nobel de labos
am\'{e}ricains.''

The Chronicle of Higher Education (David Wilson, USA) December 4, 1991:
``Approaching Artificial Life on a Computer.  Survival-of-the-fittest
electronic organisms dramatically illustrate Darwinian principles.''

Mikrobitti (Pekka Tolonen, Finland) November 1991: ``Olemmeko humanoiden
biologinen koe?  Tierra simuloi el\"{a}m\"{a}\"{a}.''

Europeo (Giovanni Caprara, Italy) September 1991: ``Anche il computer ha
fatto un figlio.  Un biologo americano ha creato un software capace di
elaborare programmi che si evolvono da soli.''

GenteMoney (Riccardo Orizio, Italy) November 1991: ``Cos\`{\i} ho dato
la vita al software.''

Computerworld (Michael Alexander, USA) September 30, 1991: ``Tierra adds to
evolutionary studies.  A computerized world created on an IBM PC could
have real-world benefits for scientists.''

Sueddeutsche Zeitung (Konrad Peters, Germany) October 21, 1991:
``Die Evolution im Computer.  `K\"{u}nstliches Leben' hilft Biologen und
Informatikern auf die Spr\"{u}nge.''

Super Interessante (Anon, Brazil) November 1991: ``A vida dentro do
computador.''

Technology Review (Susan Scheck, USA) April 14, 1991: ``Is It Live Or Is
It Memory?''

Corriere Della Sera (Giovanni Capara, Italy) August 28, 1991: ``Pronto in
USA il programma che si riproduce.  Il computer `padre' crea vita
informatica.''

Fakta (Tom Ottmar, Norway) March 1992: ``Den Lever!  En `skabning', der
best\aa r af nuller og \'{e}nere, er vokset ud af indamaden p\aa \ en
computer og er blevet en videnskabelig sensation i USA.''

Associated Press (Theresa Humphrey, USA) October 1991: ``Bringing life to
computer.  U of D biologist's program is self-replicating, shows evolution.''

Hovedomr\aa det (Jakob Skipper, Denmark) December 6, 1990: ``Kunstigt liv.
Nu kommer det kunstige liv.  En voksende gruppe af dataloger, biologer,
fysikere, psykologer og mange andre forskere efterlinger p\aa \ computer
det naturlige liv.''

13) Tierra Publications

Ray, T. S.  1991.  ``Is it alive, or is it GA?''
Proceedings of the 1991 International Conference on Genetic Algorithms,
Eds. Belew, R. K., and L. B. Booker, San Mateo, CA: Morgan Kaufmann, 527-534.

Ray, T. S.  1991.  ``An approach to the synthesis of life.''
Artificial Life II, Santa Fe Institute Studies in the Sciences of
Complexity, vol. XI, Eds. Farmer, J. D., C. Langton, S. Rasmussen, &
C. Taylor, Redwood City, CA: Addison-Wesley, 371-408.

Ray, T. S.  1991.  ``Population dynamics of digital organisms.''
Artificial Life II Video Proceedings,  Ed. C.G. Langton,
Redwood City, CA: Addison Wesley.

Ray, T. S.  1991.  ``Evolution and optimization of digital organisms.''
Scientific Excellence in Supercomputing: The IBM 1990 Contest Prize
Papers, Eds. Keith R. Billingsley, Ed Derohanes, Hilton Brown, III.
Athens, GA, 30602, The Baldwin Press, The University of Georgia.

Ray, T. S.  1992.  ``Evolution ecology and optimization of digital organisms.''
Santa Fe Institute working paper (available in the ftp site as tierra.tex
and tierra.ps).

14) Mailing Lists

     There are two mailing lists for Tierra users.  The first list is for
people who only want to get the official announcements, updates and bug-fixes.
The other will carry the official postings, and are intended for discussion
of Tierra by users.  This one is distributed in digest form, when there is
enough material.  The lists are:

tierra-announce    official updates, patches and announcements only
tierra-digest      discussion, updates, etc. (digest form)

The addresses are:

[e-mail]   the list administrator (Tom Uffner). to
                                    be added, removed, or complain about
                                    problems with any of these lists.

[e-mail]    to post to the list.

[e-mail]       for bug-reports or questions about the
                                    code or installation.

     You may also be interested in the Artificial Life mailing list.
Subscribe to the list by sending a message to:

[e-mail]

     Post to the list by sending a message to:

[e-mail]

15) What Tierra Is

     The C source code creates a virtual computer and its operating system,
whose architecture has been designed in such a way that the executable
machine codes are evolvable.  This means that the machine code can be mutated
(by flipping bits at random) or recombined (by swapping segments of code
between algorithms), and the resulting code remains functional enough of the
time for natural (or presumably artificial) selection to be able to improve
the code over time.

     Along with the C source code which generates the virtual computer, we
provide several programs written in the assembler code of the virtual
computer.  Some of these were written by a human and do nothing more than make
copies of themselves in the RAM of the virtual computer.  The others evolved
from the first, and are included to illustrate the power of natural selection.

     The operating system of the virtual computer provides memory management
and timesharing services.  It also provides control for a variety of factors
that affect the course of evolution: three kinds of mutation rates,
disturbances, the allocation of CPU time to each creature, the size of the
soup, etc.  In addition, the operating system provides a very elaborate
observational system that keeps a record of births and deaths, sequences
the code of every creature, and maintains a genebank of successful genomes.
The operating system also provides facilities for automating the ecological
analysis, that is, for recording the kinds of interactions taking place
between creatures.

     This system results in the production of synthetic organisms based on
a computer metaphor of organic life in which CPU time is the ``energy''
resource and memory is the ``material'' resource.  Memory is organized into
informational patterns that exploit CPU time for self-replication.  Mutation
generates new forms, and evolution proceeds by natural selection as different
genotypes compete for CPU time and memory space.

     Diverse ecological communities have emerged.  These digital communities
have been used to experimentally examine ecological and evolutionary
processes: e.g., competitive exclusion and coexistence, host/parasite density
dependent population regulation, the effect of parasites in enhancing
community diversity, evolutionary arms race, punctuated equilibrium, and the
role of chance and historical factors in evolution.  This evolution in a
bottle may prove to be a valuable tool for the study of evolution and ecology.