***** Vol.3 Chap.8 Dreadful results with artificial creatures *****
After Margaret and JB left the room. Frank turned to Mark.
“Mark, your results bothered me, rather, the implication of the results. Sit down. Be comfortable.”
“JB’s results pointed to the fact that violence was a product of chance in the process of inheritance. Your results seem to suggest that violence is a product of evolution because of survival. So, I have a special favor to ask. Take a few of your creatures and create a violent trait in them, those who attack friend and foe alike. Can that be done?”
“Easy. If a creature cannot distinguish between its own kinds from predators, then it will attack both types.”
“Good. Then, based on what we know about mutation, as you called it, program your artificial creatures to have a similar mechanism for passing on this violent behavior from generation to generation. Now run your simulation for a significant number of generations and see what the results are for your artificial creatures?”
“No problem.”
“OK, thanks.”
Frank did not have to wait long. After three days, Mark came in with the results looking somewhat disturbed.
“Professor Abdulcizi, I’ve got the results on the simulation runs here. Would you like to see them?”
“Yes, I am anxiously waiting.”
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“Well, I created a special subroutine that caused the creatures to attack everything in sight. I then marked and tagged these creatures with the violent subroutine. Whenever one of these creatures encountered another creature, regardless of whether it was its own kind or a predator, the violent creature will attack and devour the unfortunate one as food.”
“That’s good. That is what I wanted.”
“Well, according to the simulation, it did not take hundreds of generations before the violent ones completely overtake the entire cyberspace. In most simulations, it only took about a few dozens of generations before all non-violent creatures are driven to extinction.”
Frank fell back in his chair.
“Does that mean that when violence is unchecked, it will take over the world entirely?”
“It seems so in my artificial world.”
“OK, that was a little extreme because you only have violent ones and non-violent ones. Now what if there is a varying degree of violence in these creatures? Use a fraction to indicate the percentage of violence and see what you got.”
“That seems reasonable.”
After a week, Mark came somberly again with the results.
“Essentially, we get the same conclusion as before. Only this time, it takes longer for violent ones to dominate the cyberspace.”
Mark was careful to emphasize the word ‘cyberspace.’
“Are you saying that if we have any creatures with a violent trait, then these creatures will always dominate the cyberspace afterwards?”
“It seems so in my simulations.”
“OK, thank you Mark. Good work.”
In subsequent research meetings, Frank kept asking Mark to explore different facets of his creatures and the outcome of the ultimate battle between the neutral creatures and the aggressive creatures. In fact, he was so engrossed that all he wanted to talk about was the creatures, thus devoting the bulk of the research meeting to Mark’s results.
Since artificial creatures was not JB’s interest, she just sat there and listened. Now and then, Frank would ask her for a progress report on her program in analyzing other segments of the genome, but JB could not duplicate the magic of previous discovery. Disappointed, Frank just left her alone.
After a few weeks, JB almost stopped coming completely. At the beginning, she would make excuses about having a headache, getting a flu, or having an out-of-town guest. Eventually, she just faded out of the picture.