Evolutionary Cellular Automaton

We present a program that simulates the coevolution of digital organisms competing for limited resources. The rules of competition and collaboration implicit in the code have been inspired by the underlying mechanisms that generate natural selection. The simplest, most general, and least controversial rules presented in natural systems have been chosen, and these rules have been implemented in the most flexible and adjustable way found. Our model is capable of i) measuring the evolutionarily stable equilibrium or the unstable imbalance of biological interactions, ii) can weigh biological competition and cooperation relationships to evaluate their relative incidence in the coevolution of species, iii) it can verify, with this instrument, evolutionary theories widely contrasted, and iv) that it is capable of shedding light on the evolutionary effects of other mechanisms, such as the spatial distribution of populations, that until now they have not been much studied.