Creativity in Evolution: Individuals, Interactions and Environments

Publication details

Creativity in Evolution: Individuals, Interactions and Environments

Tim Taylor

2001

Abstract

This chapter addresses the nature of open-ended evolutionary processes, and the related, but more subtle, issue of how fundamental novelty (i.e. creativity) can arise in such processes. A number of existing artificial evolutionary systems, such as Tierra, are analysed in this context, but it is found that the theoretical grounding upon which they are based does not usually consider all of the relevant issues for creative evolution. The importance of considering the design of the environment, and of interactions between individuals, as well as the design of the individuals themselves, is emphasised. The properties of a hypothetical ’proto-DNA’ structure — a suitable seed for an open-ended, and creative, evolutionary process—are discussed. A number of open questions relating to these issues are highlighted as useful areas of future research. Finally, a paradigm for an evolutionary process described by Waddington (1969) is described. It is suggested that this might represent a suitable starting place for a more unified and productive exploration of these issues using synthetic (artificial life) modelling techniques.

Full text

Author preprint: pdf
On publisher's website: via DOI

Reference

Taylor, T. (2001). Creativity in Evolution: Individuals, Interactions and Environments. In P. J. Bentley & D. W. Corne (Eds.), Creative Evolutionary Systems (pp. 79–108). https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-155860673-9/50037-9

BibTeX

@incollection{taylor2001creativity,
  author = {Taylor, Tim},
  title = {Creativity in Evolution: Individuals, Interactions and Environments},
  booktitle = {Creative Evolutionary Systems},
  editor = {Bentley, Peter J and Corne, David W},
  chapter = {1},
  pages = {79--108},
  publisher = {Morgan Kaufmann},
  year = {2001},
  doi = {10.1016/b978-155860673-9/50037-9},
  category = {chapter},
  keywords = {creativity, oee}
}

Related publications

Channon, A., Bedau, M., Packard, N., & Taylor, T. (2024). Editorial Introduction to the 2024 Special Issue on Open-Ended Evolution. Artificial Life, 30(3), 300–301. https://doi.org/10.1162/artl_e_00445
Full details
```
@article{channon2024editorial,
  author = {Channon, Alastair and Bedau, Mark and Packard, Norman and Taylor, Tim},
  title = {Editorial Introduction to the 2024 Special Issue on Open-Ended Evolution},
  journal = {Artificial Life},
  year = {2024},
  volume = {30},
  number = {3},
  pages = {300--301},
  publisher = {{MIT} Press Journals},
  doi = {10.1162/artl_e_00445},
  issn = {1064-5462},
  category = {journal},
  keywords = {oee}
}
```
Taylor, T. (2021). Evolutionary Innovation Viewed as Novel Physical Phenomena and Hierarchical Systems Building. Presented at the Fourth Workshop on Open-Ended Evolution (OEE4) at the 2021 Conference on Artificial Life (ALIFE 2021). Retrieved from https://arxiv.org/abs/2107.09669
PDF Full details
```
@article{taylor2021evolutionary,
  author = {Taylor, Tim},
  title = {Evolutionary Innovation Viewed as Novel Physical Phenomena and Hierarchical Systems Building},
  journal = {Presented at the Fourth Workshop on Open-Ended Evolution (OEE4) at the 2021 Conference on Artificial Life (ALIFE 2021)},
  year = {2021},
  month = jul,
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2107.09669},
  category = {workshop},
  keywords = {oee}
}
```
Taylor, T. (2020). The Importance of Open-Endedness (For the Sake of Open-Endedness). In J. Bongard, J. Lovato, L. Hebert-Dufrésne, R. Dasari, & L. Soros (Eds.), ALIFE 2020: Proceedings of the Artificial Life Conference 2020 (pp. 578–580). https://doi.org/10.1162/isal_a_00257
PDF Full details
```
@inproceedings{taylor2020importance,
  author = {Taylor, Tim},
  title = {The Importance of Open-Endedness (For the Sake of Open-Endedness)},
  booktitle = {ALIFE 2020: Proceedings of the Artificial Life Conference 2020},
  editor = {Bongard, Josh and Lovato, Juniper and Hebert-Dufrésne, Laurent and Dasari, Radhakrishna and Soros, Lisa},
  year = {2020},
  publisher = {{MIT} Press},
  pages = {578-580},
  doi = {10.1162/isal_a_00257},
  category = {conference},
  keywords = {oee}
}
```
Taylor, T. (2019). Evolutionary Innovations and Where to Find Them: Routes to Open-Ended Evolution in Natural and Artificial Systems. Artificial Life, 25(2), 207–224. https://doi.org/10.1162/artl_a_00290
PDF Full details
```
@article{taylor2019evolutionary,
  author = {Taylor, Tim},
  title = {Evolutionary Innovations and Where to Find Them: Routes to Open-Ended Evolution in Natural and Artificial Systems},
  journal = {Artificial Life},
  year = {2019},
  volume = {25},
  number = {2},
  pages = {207--224},
  publisher = {{MIT} Press Journals},
  doi = {10.1162/artl_a_00290},
  issn = {1064-5462},
  category = {journal},
  keywords = {oee}
}
```
Packard, N., Bedau, M., Channon, A., Ikegami, T., Rasmussen, S., Stanley, K., & Taylor, T. (2019). An Overview of Open-Ended Evolution: Editorial Introduction to the Open-Ended Evolution II Special Issue. Artificial Life, 25(2), 93–103. https://doi.org/10.1162/artl_a_00291
PDF Full details
```
@article{packard2019overview,
  author = {Packard, Norman and Bedau, Mark and Channon, Alastair and Ikegami, Takashi and Rasmussen, Steen and Stanley, Kenneth and Taylor, Tim},
  title = {An Overview of Open-Ended Evolution: Editorial Introduction to the Open-Ended Evolution II Special Issue},
  journal = {Artificial Life},
  year = {2019},
  volume = {25},
  number = {2},
  pages = {93--103},
  publisher = {{MIT} Press Journals},
  doi = {10.1162/artl_a_00291},
  issn = {1064-5462},
  category = {journal},
  keywords = {oee}
}
```
Packard, N., Bedau, M., Channon, A., Ikegami, T., Rasmussen, S., Stanley, K., & Taylor, T. (2019). Open-Ended Evolution and Open-Endedness: Editorial Introduction to the Open-Ended Evolution I Special Issue. Artificial Life, 25(1), 1–3. https://doi.org/10.1162/artl_e_00282
PDF Full details
```
@article{packard2019openended,
  author = {Packard, Norman and Bedau, Mark and Channon, Alastair and Ikegami, Takashi and Rasmussen, Steen and Stanley, Kenneth and Taylor, Tim},
  title = {Open-Ended Evolution and Open-Endedness: Editorial Introduction to the Open-Ended Evolution I Special Issue},
  journal = {Artificial Life},
  year = {2019},
  volume = {25},
  number = {1},
  pages = {1--3},
  publisher = {{MIT} Press Journals},
  doi = {10.1162/artl_e_00282},
  issn = {1064-5462},
  category = {journal},
  keywords = {oee}
}
```
Taylor, T. (2018). Routes to Open-Endedness in Evolutionary Systems. Presented at the Third Workshop on Open-Ended Evolution (OEE3) at the 2018 Conference on Artificial Life (ALIFE 2018). Retrieved from https://arxiv.org/abs/1806.01883v3
PDF Full details
```
@article{taylor2018routes,
  author = {Taylor, Tim},
  title = {Routes to Open-Endedness in Evolutionary Systems},
  journal = {Presented at the Third Workshop on Open-Ended Evolution (OEE3) at the 2018 Conference on Artificial Life (ALIFE 2018)},
  year = {2018},
  month = jul,
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/1806.01883v3},
  category = {workshop},
  keywords = {oee}
}
```

Taylor, T., Bedau, M., Channon, A., Ackley, D., Banzhaf, W., Beslon, G., … Wiser, M. (2016). Open-Ended Evolution: Perspectives from the OEE Workshop in York. Artificial Life, 22(3), 408–423. https://doi.org/10.1162/artl_a_00210

PDF Full details

@article{taylor2016openended,
  author = {Taylor, Tim and Bedau, Mark and Channon, Alastair and Ackley, David and Banzhaf, Wolfgang and Beslon, Guillaume and Dolson, Emily and Froese, Tom and Hickinbotham, Simon and Ikegami, Takashi and McMullin, Barry and Packard, Norman and Rasmussen, Steen and Virgo, Nathaniel and Agmon, Eran and Clark, Edward and McGregor, Simon and Ofria, Charles and Ropella, Glen and Spector, Lee and Stanley, Kenneth O. and Stanton, Adam and Timperley, Christopher and Vostinar, Anya and Wiser, Michael},
  title = {Open-Ended Evolution: Perspectives from the {OEE} Workshop in {Y}ork},
  journal = {Artificial Life},
  year = {2016},
  publisher = {{MIT} Press Journals},
  volume = {22},
  number = {3},
  pages = {408--423},
  doi = {10.1162/artl_a_00210},
  category = {journal},
  keywords = {oee}
}

Taylor, T. (2015). Requirements for Open-Ended Evolution in Natural and Artificial Systems. Presented at the EvoEvo Workshop at the European Conference on Artificial Life 2015 (ECAL 2015). Retrieved from https://arxiv.org/abs/1507.07403
PDF Full details
```
@article{taylor2015requirements,
  author = {Taylor, Tim},
  title = {Requirements for Open-Ended Evolution in Natural and Artificial Systems},
  journal = {Presented at the EvoEvo Workshop at the European Conference on Artificial Life 2015 (ECAL 2015)},
  year = {2015},
  month = jul,
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/1507.07403},
  category = {workshop},
  keywords = {oee}
}
```
Taylor, T. (2014). Evolution in virtual worlds. In M. Grimshaw (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Virtuality (pp. 526–548). https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199826162.013.044
PDF Full details
```
@inbook{taylor2014evolution,
  title = {Evolution in virtual worlds},
  author = {Taylor, Tim},
  year = {2014},
  doi = {10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199826162.013.044},
  language = {English},
  isbn = {9780199826162},
  pages = {526--548},
  editor = {Grimshaw, Mark},
  booktitle = {The Oxford Handbook of Virtuality},
  publisher = {Oxford University Press},
  address = {United Kingdom},
  category = {chapter},
  keywords = {oee}
}
```
Taylor, T. (2012). Exploring the Concept of Open-Ended Evolution. In C. Adami, D. M. Bryson, C. Ofria, & R. T. Pennock (Eds.), Artificial Life 13: Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Conference on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems (pp. 540–541). MIT Press.
PDF Full details
```
@inproceedings{taylor2012exploring,
  author = {Taylor, Tim},
  title = {Exploring the Concept of Open-Ended Evolution},
  booktitle = {Artificial Life 13: Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Conference on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems},
  year = {2012},
  editor = {Adami, Christoph and Bryson, David M. and Ofria, Charles and Pennock, Robert T.},
  pages = {540--541},
  publisher = {{MIT} Press},
  category = {conference},
  keywords = {oee}
}
```
Taylor, T. (2004). Redrawing the Boundary between Organism and Environment. In J. Pollack, M. A. Bedau, P. Husbands, R. A. Watson, & T. Ikegami (Eds.), Artificial Life IX: Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems (pp. 268–273). https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/1429.003.0045
PDF Full details
```
@inproceedings{taylor2004redrawing,
  author = {Taylor, Tim},
  title = {Redrawing the Boundary between Organism and Environment},
  booktitle = {Artificial Life IX: Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems},
  year = {2004},
  editor = {Pollack, Jordan and Bedau, Mark A. and Husbands, Phil and Watson, Richard A. and Ikegami, Takashi},
  pages = {268-273},
  address = {Cambridge, MA},
  publisher = {{MIT} Press},
  doi = {10.7551/mitpress/1429.003.0045},
  category = {conference},
  keywords = {evoca, oee, meaning, agency}
}
```
Taylor, T. (2003). Evolving Interaction in Artificial Systems: An historical overview and future directions. In P. McOwan, K. Dautenhahn, & C. L. Nehaniv (Eds.), Abstracts from the Evolvability and Interaction Symposium, held at Queen Mary, University of London, UK, in October 2003. University of Hertfordshire Computer Science Technical Report No. 393.
Full details
```
@incollection{taylor2003evolving,
  author = {Taylor, Tim},
  title = {Evolving Interaction in Artificial Systems: An historical overview and future directions},
  booktitle = {Abstracts from the Evolvability and Interaction Symposium, held at Queen Mary, University of London, UK, in October 2003},
  publisher = {University of Hertfordshire Computer Science Technical Report No.~393},
  year = {2003},
  month = oct,
  editor = {McOwan, Peter and Dautenhahn, Kerstin and Nehaniv, Chrystopher L.},
  category = {workshop},
  keywords = {evoca, history, oee}
}
```
Taylor, T. (2000). Some Representational and Ecological Aspects of Evolvability. In C. L. Nehaniv (Ed.), Proceedings of the Evolvability Workshop at the the Seventh International Conference on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems (Artificial Life 7) (pp. 41–44). Retrieved from http://homepages.herts.ac.uk/ comqcln/al7ev/cnts.html
PDF Full details
```
@inproceedings{taylor2000some,
  author = {Taylor, Tim},
  title = {Some Representational and Ecological Aspects of Evolvability},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the Evolvability Workshop at the the Seventh International Conference on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems (Artificial Life 7)},
  year = {2000},
  editor = {Nehaniv, Chrystopher L.},
  pages = {41-44},
  url = {http://homepages.herts.ac.uk/~comqcln/al7ev/cnts.html},
  month = aug,
  category = {workshop},
  keywords = {selfrep, oee}
}
```
Taylor, T. (1999). Creativity in Evolution: Individuals, Interactions and Environments. In P. J. Bentley & D. W. Corne (Eds.), Proceedings of the AISB’99 Symposium on Creative Evolutionary Systems (pp. 8–17). The Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour.
PDF Full details
```
@inproceedings{taylor1999creativity,
  author = {Taylor, Tim},
  title = {Creativity in Evolution: Individuals, Interactions and Environments},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the AISB'99 Symposium on Creative Evolutionary Systems},
  year = {1999},
  editor = {Bentley, Peter J. and Corne, David W.},
  pages = {8-17},
  publisher = {The Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour},
  isbn = {1902956036},
  category = {conference},
  keywords = {creativity, cosmos}
}
```
Taylor, T. J. (1999). From Artificial Evolution to Artificial Life (PhD thesis). School of Informatics, College of Science and Engineering, University of Edinburgh.
PDF Full details
```
@phdthesis{taylor1999artificial,
  author = {Taylor, Timothy John},
  title = {From Artificial Evolution to Artificial Life},
  school = {School of Informatics, College of Science and Engineering, University of Edinburgh},
  year = {1999},
  uri = {http://hdl.handle.net/1842/361},
  category = {dissertation},
  keywords = {selfrep, oee, cosmos}
}
```
Taylor, T. (1998). Nidus Design Document (Departmental Working Paper No. 269). Department of Artificial Intelligence, University of Edinburgh.
PDF Full details
```
@techreport{taylor1998nidus,
  author = {Taylor, Tim},
  title = {Nidus Design Document},
  institution = {Department of Artificial Intelligence, University of Edinburgh},
  year = {1998},
  type = {Departmental Working Paper},
  number = {269},
  month = jun,
  category = {techreport},
  keywords = {oee}
}
```