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Documentation .doc.evolution

Your First Generation

When your first generation of turtles is displayed, you may notice that overall the figures are not that impressive. This is, of course, to be expected, since the turtles are created in a completely random fashion. In fact, if any of the turtles show any signs of interesting behavior, this is merely a low probability event and should be considered a blessing.

However, do not be discouraged. As you begin to selectively choose turtles for reproduction and evolution, you will see dramatic jumps in the level of sophistication of your turtles. For each new generation of turtles does not have to re-learn the complexities of their parents, they are fortunate enough to inherit them from the genetic constituency of their parents. In fact, as new figures appear in succeeding generations, you will begin to notice the parts that they inherited from their parents, and even begin to identify different turtles as being siblings!

Once you have evaluated the figures of your first generation of turtles, you will certainly wish to evolve a new generation of turtles to see the evolutionary process in full swing. But first, you must decide which turtles will be fortunate enough to participate in the reproduction of this new generation of more elite figure drawing turtles.

Turtle Fitness Selection

Before evolving a new generation of turtles, it is beneficial to select only the turtles you are interested in pursuing. If you allow all of the turtles to evolve equally, then the population tends to converge genetically. When this happens, one or several turtles will begin to have fitness values much higher than all of the other turtles. These super turtles will slowly begin to dominate your population and squeeze out any new turtles. Thus, you should select those that you wish to pursue and those that you do not. This allows you to focus in on particular traits in the turtles, and to pursue these traits in successive generations.

You may change the fitness of a turtle for reproduction by using a shift-left-click. Left-clicking on a turtle's figure while holding down the shift key will cause the turtle's fitness to be toggled. Thus, if the turtle was originally fit (indicated by a blue border) it will be made unfit and will not be selected for reproduction (indicated by a red border). Accordingly, if the turtle was originally, it would be marked as fit again.

In technical terms, when a turtle is fit, its fitness value is determined by certain qualities of the image that is drawn, such as how many lines it draws, how many colors are used, and how many turns are made. When a turtle is marked as unfit, the fitness value is simply set to zero, which means the turtle is almost never selected for reproduction.

Population Evolution

Once you have chosen the turtles that are fit to be reproduced, you can evolve your next generation of turtles. To accomplish this task, select the Evolve Population item in the File menu.

This command will clear the population window's display, evolve the next generation of turtles, and begin displaying their figures in their respective squares. Again, the amount of time needed to perform this drawing depends upon the complexity of each turtle's algorithm, the number of turtles in the population, and the speed of your computer.

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