Co-evolution of self-replication and function in a digital primordial soup

7 hours ago

Self-replication emerges spontaneously in digital primordial soups without hard-coded reproduction.
Self-replication and problem-solving (like polynomial evaluation) co-evolve from random assembly programs through mutations and interactions.
Task pressure accelerates the emergence of compact, robust reproductive architectures that conserve memory for computations.
Metabolic constraints promote conditional halting, enabling programs to halt during validation but replicate during interactions.

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