Self-replicating artificial neural networks give rise to universal evolutionary dynamics
Fig 2
(A-C) In the first 270 generations, the population mean fitness increased and the mutation rate decreased, whereas the mutational robustness fluctuated. (D-F) Starting around generation 1,350 (dashed line), major adaptations occurred in all three metrics. The number of accumulated mutations increased, but the number of network parameters and the loss_weight value fluctuated rather than trended (Fig H in S1 Text). (G) Population mean fitness (x-axis) vs. mutation rate (y-axis) over time (color, brighter is later). Panels D-G show a rolling average over 10 generations. Fitness: survival rate × fertility (Eq 3); Mutation rate: number of mutations per genotype replication; Robustness: one minus average absolute fitness difference between parent and mutant offspring (Eq 5).