posted on 2023-01-25, 10:23authored byDavid Medernach
Charles Darwin introduced the theory of evolution by natural selection in [Darwin
and Wallace, 1858], and since that time the concept has remained unchanged
at the highest level. However, there have been numerous and animated debates
about its concrete implementation. Evolutionary Computation (EC) has taken
inspiration from these debates, for example recently by reusing ideas from epigenetics
[Tanev and Yuta, 2003]. We propose here to focus on a point which,
although not central to the theory itself, comes up regularly in the polemics that
have marked the eld of evolutionary biology: environmental
uctuations. That
is to say events
uctuating randomly or regularly and modifying the optimal
strategy maximizing an individual's tness.
This thesis studies the e ects of environmental
uctuations on natural selection
in the context of computer simulations such as Genetic Programming (GP)
and \open-ended" arti cial life simulations.
The remainder of this chapter is organised as follows: Section 1.1 describes
the motivation behind this research; Section 1.2 presents the research questions
and the objectives addressed in the thesis; then Section 1.3 lists the contributions;
nally Section 1.4 presents the structure of the thesis.