Bugs

Bugs was my first major attempt at artificial life except for a couple of emergent complexity simulations I've written. Bugs consists of a map with bugs and plants on it. The user may release a number of bugs into a variantly hostile environment dependent on how the user sets the large number of controls at his or her disposal. The bugs move about on the map eating plants which appear occasionally. The bugs are equipped with several genes, modifying mainly how they search for food and how their energy is expended. If a bug runs out of energy, it dies. If a bug reaches the reproduction energy threshold it reproduces introducing mutations into the offspring's genes. Over time it is possible to see the entire genepool (visible through several bar graphs) converge at new points, different from the values set at the beginning of the simulation. This is primarily a simulation that can be used to show that mass populations can and will alter their overall genepool to adapt to an environment, the fundamental theory necessitated in evolution.

The Bugs map:

Some of the graphics available for viewing the genepool:

Bugs is freeware and will run on any Macintosh computer. Extensive documentation is included.

Download Bugs