A simple (300 lines of code) reproduction of Computational Life: How Well-formed, Self-replicating Programs Emerge from Simple Interaction - Rabrg/artificial-life

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A 300-line Python implementation reproducing the 'Computational Life' paper, which demonstrates how self-replicating programs spontaneously emerge from simple interactions. A 240x135 grid of Brainfuck-like programs is randomly initialized; each iteration, neighboring programs are paired, their instruction tapes concatenated, and executed for up to 2^13 steps. Programs can loop and mutate each other's tapes, and self-replicating programs naturally emerge and spread across the grid — with more efficient replicators eventually outcompeting earlier ones.

GitHub - Rabrg/artificial-life: A simple (300 lines of code) reproduction of Computational Life: How Well-formed, Self-replicating Programs Emerge from Simple Interaction