Demonstrating the Evolution of Complex Genetic Representations: An Evolution of Artificial Plants

A common idea is that complex evolutionary adaptation is enabled by complex genetic representations of phenotypic traits. This paper demonstrates how, according to a recently developed theory, genetic representations can self-adapt in favor of evolvability, i.e., the chance of adaptive mutations. The key for the adaptability of genetic representations is neutrality inherent in non-trivial genotype-phenotype mappings and neutral mutations that allow for transitions between genetic representations of the same phenotype. We model an evolution of artificial plants, encoded by grammar-like genotypes, to demonstrate this theory.

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