On the Emergence of Large-scale Complex Behavior in the Dynamics of a Society of Living Individuals: the Stochastic Game of Life

✍ Scribed by Roberto A. Monetti; Ezequiel V. Albano

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 327 KB
• Volume: 187
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-5193
• DOI: 10.1006/jtbi.1997.0424

✦ Synopsis

Stochastic Games of Life (SGLs), which simulate the dynamic evolution of a society of living organisms in the presence of noise, are introduced and studied by means of extensive computer simulations. The SGLs exhibit very rich critical and aperiodic behavior. In one dimension the SGL has critical edges at second-order irreversible phase transitions between extinction and life, and life and overcrowding. Furthermore, within the living phase, critical edges at irreversible transitions between aperiodic and frozen life are also found. In two dimensions the SGL has a critical edge at a first order irreversible phase transition between life and extinction. In this case, the whole living phase is aperiodic. The phase diagrams characteristic of the stationary state of both models are determined and discussed. Also, the dynamic of the spreading of small colonies of living individuals close to the critical edges is studied and discussed. Summing up, the SGLs models show the emergence of highly complex large-scale behavior that is generated by few simple local rules, which define the interactions between neighboring individuals.