Avida is an artificial life software package allowing for research into evolutionary processes using digital organisms. Avida was first coded in the 1990s, and has developed through numerous versions since then. The software is freely available for multiple platforms, including Unix, Mac OS X, and Windows.
This page is meant as a repository of my personal notes on Avida resources. As such, this is not now and likely never will be a finished document; it will be revised as I am able to incorporate materials and add my own commentary to it.
This may be redundant, but I will list some Avida publications where the full text is freely available and append some summaries as I have time. Primarily taking bibliographic entries from Prof. Ofria’s page.
Experiments with Avida show how complex features can be acquired via evolutionary processes gradually building that complexity. The experiments demonstrate that some critical changes can, in fact, be deleterious on first appearance.
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