http://programmer.ie/tags/evolutionary-search/ Recent content in Evolutionary Search on Programmer.ie: Modern AI programming Hugo en-us Mon, 10 Aug 2026 18:58:00 +0100 http://programmer.ie/post/cellular-automata-from-first-principles-25/ Mon, 10 Aug 2026 18:58:00 +0100 http://programmer.ie/post/cellular-automata-from-first-principles-25/ <h1 id="cellular-automata-from-first-principles-25-evolve-rules-for-desired-behaviour">Cellular Automata From First Principles 25: Evolve Rules for Desired Behaviour</h1> <p>Once we can represent a rule, mutate it and measure its behavior, we can evolve cellular automata.</p> <p>The key idea is simple:</p> <div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-text" data-lang="text"><span style="display:flex;"><span>population of rules </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> ↓ </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>simulate </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> ↓ </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>measure </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> ↓ </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>select </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> ↓ </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>mutate </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> ↓ </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>repeat </span></span></code></pre></div><p>This chapter builds that loop without hiding it behind an optimization framework.</p> <hr> <h2 id="represent-a-rule-as-bits">Represent a rule as bits</h2> <p>For an elementary CA, eight output bits completely define the rule:</p>