Genesis - FAQs
What does a 'life form' look like in the Genesis program?
A life form can be seen as either a single coloured dot, or a group of adjacent dots of the same colour. Each coloured dot is a cell. One interesting observation is that often the life forms go around in groups. Note cells that are not adjacent and the same colour are separate life forms.
What happens when life forms move off the sides of the screen?
When a life form appears to disappear off the sides of the screen it is simply placed on the opposite side, i.e. the movement wraps around. This is as if the world in which the life forms exist is doughnut shaped.
What does the genome of a life form consist of?
The genome of a single life form in Genesis is simply a string of integers, from 0 to 7. I will call each single integer in this string a 'codon' here. In real life DNA a codon is three DNA bases, which together correspond to one amino acid. These 'codons', integers in this case, are grouped into subsets called 'genes'. Each gene in real life DNA corresponds to a single protein. In genesis the genes correspond to algorithms or parameters that determine the life form's behaviour. The genes are further grouped into 'gene blocks', consisting of 18 genes that describe all the behaviour and properties of a single cell. More details on genome ...
What information, exactly, is sent to and from my computer when I connect to the Genesis server?
The server contains a number of gene sets. Each gene set corresponds to about 100 life forms. The gene sets each contain all the individual genomes of the life forms that existed when the last run of the applet corresponding to the gene set was stopped.
When the applet is started it makes a request to the server to deal the next available gene set. When the user stops the applet the same gene set is written over with the genomes of the life forms that were alive at the end of the run. Hence the evolution process continues, each user contributing by a little bit…
Multiple sets of genomes are kept on the server to allow for concurrent users and to provide 'separation' between life forms that are evolving, to see if different sets develop different characteristics.
What does 'population' mean?
Simply the number of life forms 'alive' in the applet you are running at the current time.
Can the lifeforms think?
Well... Each cell is capable of acting as a neuron which takes in data from surrounding cells of the same life form as well as from sensing the imediate environment according to the evolved 'sense' algorithm and from the internal memory of the cell which holds recent inputs. When a life form decides where to move it takes the infomation it receives from this neural net that is the lifeform and enters this along with other infomation detailing its surroundings into its evolved 'move' algorithm and uses this to make the decision.
Any Questions?
If you have any further questions please email genesis@davidstern.co.uk.