arxivcs.NE2026-07-10
Co-evolution of self-replication and function in a digital primordial soup
Francesco Cicala, Eyvind Niklasson, Ettore Randazzo, Sami Boukortt, Alessio Basti, Mayalen Etcheverry, et al.
While traditional evolutionary algorithms hard-code reproduction, self-replication can emerge spontaneously within digital ``primordial soups''. This paper investigates the co-evolution of this emergent self-replication alongside problem-solving capabilities. We initialize a popu…