Numerical Examples of Evolutionary Processes [English Translation of "Esempi Numerici di Processi di Evoluzione"...

Some consequences of the Darwinian principle of evolution by survival of the fittest are analyzed. Considering that this principle reduces evolution to a purely statistical phenomenon, we draw the conclusion that it may apply not only to living organisms but also to elements of any kind able to reproduce and to undergo hereditary changes (mutations). By applying the Darwinian principle to the most primitive elements with the required properties, viruses or artificially constructed elements (for instance, numbers), we show that the Darwinian principle alone is not sufficient to explain the origin of an evolutionary process like the biological one. At least one additional principle is needed in order to explain the origin of such an evolutionary process. We suggest that the theory of gene symbiosis may serve as this complementary principle. By using numerical elements with reproduction rules that make symbiosis (or utilitarian association) necessary, we show that evolutionary processes with promising properties are likely to arise. In the last part of the paper, we describe an evolutionary process obtained with numerical elements during a series of experiments performed by the electronic computer at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ, USA, in the spring of 1953.