(Attractiveness vs. Efficiency)
5 The Simulation
A simulation was designed to test the hypothesis. It models a continuous two-dimensional square area representing a fluid medium. In the model, distances and sizes are measured in abstract world units. The size of the square domain is 6000 by 6000. Nothing can pass beyond its boundary(it is like an aquarium tank. Organisms in this simulation are called "swimbots", due to a slight machine-like, or robot-like appearance. In addition to swimbots, there are food bits, and the medium in which they exist, called, the fluid. Time is measured in discrete units of 1, with each time step corresponding to an update of physical forces, swimmer states, and an animation frame. Food is regenerated periodically (one bit every 20 steps) in the fluid, and eaten by swimbots. Swimbots eat, mate, give birth to new swimbots, and die.
Energy
Global energy is set to 150,000 (abstract units), and remains constant. Throughout the simulation it is exchanged between fluid, food, and swimbots, as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Energy exchange
The fluid contains ambient energy which is gradually converted into new food bits which appear in random locations of the fluid. Each food bit contains 50 units of energy and remains stationary until eaten by a swimbot, which then acquires this energy. Energy is expended in the swimbot from the work of moving body parts. This expended energy is then converted back into ambient energy and stored in the fluid.
6 Swimbots
