***** Vol.3 Chap.15 Fun with artificial creatures *****
“Last time, you have shown me results that the violent creatures always took over the cyberspace. Do you have a good graphical user interface?”
“Yes, I have programmed a nice GUI.”
“Is it possible to watch the creatures at work?”
“Yes, that is part of my doctoral dissertation.”
“May I see it with the latest programming?”
“I’ll go get my laptop.”
Mark was back in a second with his laptop under his arms.
“Let me start my program. It will take a few seconds.”
“Take your time.”
After a few minutes, Mark got the computer booted up and started his program. The screen came alive. There were all kinds of numbers and cryptic symbols all over the screen. At the center of the screen, there was a big display with little symbols around the window.
“The center display is the world for the creatures. The green dots represent the normal creatures and the red dots represent the violent creatures, and the triangles represent the predators and the circles represent food deposits. You can see that initially all icons are strewn uniformly over the space.”
“Ok”
“The rules are quite simple. The creatures will search for food and attack predators. When enough food is ingested, they reproduce. For the violent creatures, they will attack and ingest anyone. For the normal creatures, they will only attack the predators. Shall we start?”
“Just a minute. What are these numbers at the top?”
“This number shows the count of normal creatures. The number next to it shows the count of violent creatures. This number here at the corner shows the number of predators left.”
“Is the amount of food limited or is food unlimited?”
“For this simulation, the location of food is fixed but unlimited, i.e. food sources cannot be exhausted.”
“How many creatures do we start with?”
“How many creatures do you want to start with?”
“OK, give me five normals, one violent, and two predators.”
Mark hit a key and a brand-new menu showed up. He adjusted a few parameters here and there.
“You say five normals?”
“Yup.”
“And two violent ones?
“Nope, just one.”
“OK, done. Shall we start the simulation?”
“Go.”
On the display, the creatures moved around, searching for food and reproducing. The violent one also searched for food and reproduced, as well. For a while, the population of the creatures increased proportionately. Soon, the creatures encountered the predators. The creatures ganged up together, and the predators were soon eliminated.
Mark explained, “The battle outcome between the creatures and the predators is set randomly. Right now, there is an equal probability in a battle between a single creature and a single predator. But when two creatures gang up together against the predator, the odds for the creatures to win are enhanced. The creatures will survive most of the time.”
“I see.”
“Since there are more creatures than predators, eventually all the predators are eliminated. This is inevitable.”
“I can see that.”
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“Now come the interesting part. You see here that the normal creatures will not attack another creature, but the violent ones would. So, whenever there is an encounter between a normal creature with a violent one, half the time, the violent one will win. But when there are two violent ones against a normal one, most of the time, the normal one will be outnumbered and thus eliminated.”
“Fascinating.”
Frank kept watching the screen and seeing the little creatures going back and back carrying on their normal activities. Of course, they did not know that Frank was watching them. The little creatures were just going about their normal business of ingesting food and reproducing.
They had no consciousness of their existence. In fact, they had no consciousness at all. They existed only in Mark’s computer, in Frank’s world, in a computer file, and they could be saved and replayed at any time again from the same time frame.
To Frank, the creatures were so free, with no worries. They did not have to work nor to put up with all the things he had to put up with, no meetings, no examinations, no correcting examinations, and no putting up with students begging for grade. They did not have to do research or give presentations.
In fact, they did not have to do anything at all. Their lives were completely provided for. Food was always there in unlimited supply. They did not have to worry about what to eat, did not have to plant, to water, to grow, to harvest food, did not have to buy groceries nor to cook the food.
They had got it made. Frank was jealous. Why can’t our lives be just as simple?
How beautiful life would be if there were no violence, no greed, and no ugliness. How nice life would be if there were no criminals, no liars, and no cheaters! What would life be like if everyone was nice and courteous to one another, if no one cheated and no one stole from others? What would New York and California be like if there were no gangs? What would the world be like if there were no racial discriminations?
Would we still need politics, or religion, or the police? Could we do without the army, the navy, the air force, and the marines? Could we dismantle all the FBIs and the CIAs around the entire world? How nice it would be to live in such a world. Could this world be so perfect?
“Dr. Abdulcizi?”
Frank was lost in his thoughts in his version of utopia and his view of an ideal world that he did not want to be disturbed. The world he saw in his mind was too beautiful, too wonderful, and too serene to be wrestled away from. Could it be possible that such a world exists? Could it exist with other living things on this earth? Could it possibly exist in another dimension? In another time frame? In another world? If so, how could he get there?
He wondered if life on earth was also a program running in some cosmic computer? He shuddered at that thought.
“Dr. Abdulcizi!” Mark shouted a little louder.
“Oh sorry, I was quite absorbed in your little creatures.”
“Yeah. I had spent hours and hours watching them, as well. Should I turn the graphics off to speed up the simulation?”
“Yes, go ahead.”
Mark paused the simulation. Then he hit a key on the laptop and brought up the control screen.
“I am setting the display to show the state of the creatures at every 10 generations.”
“Good.”
The display now was a little jerky. But Frank could see that the whole cyberspace was now bifurcated. Part of the screen was controlled by normal creatures with their own food supply. Then another part of the screen was controlled by violent creatures, also with their own food supply.
Occasionally, there were some skirmishes between the group of normal and violent creatures now and then. But overall, the creatures kept themselves in their own respective groups.
“So far, so good,” thought Frank.
There seemed to be a truce between the two groups. At least on the surface, things appeared to be calm. But Frank knew that the serenity was only temporary at best. He knew the outcome since Frank told him already.
“Now, I want to speed up the simulation some more,” said Mark.
“OK.”
Frank pulled the control screen up and adjusted the parameters.
“I am setting the screen display to show at every 100 generations.”
“That should be interesting.”
The display was very choppy now. There was no continuity at all from one display to another. At this speed, the location of each individual creature had no meaning at all. But what was interesting was the size of the population of each group.
Slowly, the space occupied by the violent ones increased. Frank watched the numbers showing the number for each group. He saw that the numbers for the normal creatures were decreasing while the numbers for the violent creatures were increasing. Even though Frank knew the results, he was still shocked to see it happening in front of his eyes.
“You see here how the number showing the population count for the violent ones is increasing?”
“Yes, I noticed. That is incredible.”
“The result was inevitable. The normals would never attack the violent ones. They lived a peaceful life. But whenever there was an encounter between the normal and the violent ones, the violent ones would gradually decimate the normals. At this rate, the normals would be eliminated in about five minutes.”
Frank sat there and stared at the screen. He looked at the space where the normals lived. Then he looked at the space where the violent ones live. He saw the boundary of demarcation. He saw the border slowly drifting in favor of the violent creatures.
In his mind, he saw the battles between the violent ones and the normals. With every encounter between the two groups, a battle ensued. With every battle, the violent creatures won, and the border moved a little more in favor of the violent ones. Sure enough, after about five more minutes, the space where the normals lived completely disappeared.
Frank was aghast. He sat back and was in total awe. In fact, he was speechless. The entire population of normal creatures was wiped out only to be replaced completely by violent ones. This happens although there were less violent creatures to start with. In fact, there was only one violent creature to four normal creatures at the beginning of the simulation.
“Have you seen enough?” Mark asked.
“Yes, thank you. This is very enlightening…and sad.”
Although Frank had seen enough, he still did not know how to prepare for the panel discussion.