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Compositional pattern producing networks: A novel abstraction of development

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Abstract

Natural DNA can encode complexity on an enormous scale. Researchers are attempting to achieve the same representational efficiency in computers by implementing developmental encodings, i.e. encodings that map the genotype to the phenotype through a process of growth from a small starting point to a mature form. A major challenge in in this effort is to find the right level of abstraction of biological development to capture its essential properties without introducing unnecessary inefficiencies. In this paper, a novel abstraction of natural development, called Compositional Pattern Producing Networks (CPPNs), is proposed. Unlike currently accepted abstractions such as iterative rewrite systems and cellular growth simulations, CPPNs map to the phenotype without local interaction, that is, each individual component of the phenotype is determined independently of every other component. Results produced with CPPNs through interactive evolution of two-dimensional images show that such an encoding can nevertheless produce structural motifs often attributed to more conventional developmental abstractions, suggesting that local interaction may not be essential to the desirable properties of natural encoding in the way that is usually assumed.

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Notes

  1. Potential confusion notwithstanding, the relationship between development and ANNs is not accidental; rather, it shows that the same kinds of abstractions underly diverse complex phenomena.

  2. Even though speciation is not used in these experiments, it is still a crucial component of CPPN–NEAT for any experiment that is not interactive. Speciation in original NEAT has been shown to protect innovative topologies long enough to reach their potential [10]. Since CPPN–NEAT will be used in the future to evolve complex phenotypes without user interaction, speciation is still important and therefore described in Sect. 3.4.

  3. Our research group is currently experimenting with four-dimensional CPPNs that produce two-dimensional connectivity patterns, with promising preliminary results.

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Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Mattias Fagerlund for creating the first NEAT-based genetic art program based on his DelphiNEAT implementation, to Holger Ferstl for creating the second NEAT-based genetic art program based on SharpNEAT, and to Colin Green for creating SharpNEAT. All the software and source code used in this paper, including DNGA, SNGA, DelphiNEAT, and SharpNEAT, is available through http://www.cs.ucf.edu/∼kstanley.

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Stanley, K.O. Compositional pattern producing networks: A novel abstraction of development. Genet Program Evolvable Mach 8, 131–162 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10710-007-9028-8

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