Example 03 · Genetics

Outcomes breed

Forty foragers, one nest, food in the open. Each forager has a genome. The ones that deliver food breed; the ones that do not are culled. Watch the gene means move — and watch how fast a population can specialise when the fitness function is honest.

generation 1 —

Gene means over generations

speed vision curiosity greed

Population

generation1

alive40

mean fitness0.0

best fitness0.0

food delivered0

generation time25 s

Current means

Controls

simulation speed1.0×

Breeding keeps the best genome, culls the bottom 30%, and crosses the top five with random survivors. Mutation is a ±0.25 nudge at 8% per gene.

What to watch

Speed rises first because it pays immediately. Vision rises next because it reduces wasted travel. Curiosity is noisy: it helps find food and hurts delivery time. Greed is the interesting one — a greedy forager holds out for a bigger patch, which is only a good idea when food is dense.