The blind breeding the blind: Adaptive behavior without looking

Sensors and internal states are often considered necessary components of any adaptively behaving organism, providing the information needed to adapt a creature’s behavior in response to conditions in its external or internal environment. But adaptive, survivalenhancing behavior is possible even in simple simulated creatures lacking all direct contact with their environment — evolutionarily shaped blind action may suffice to keep a population of creatures alive and reproducing. In this paper, we consider the evolution of the behavioral repertoires of such sensor-less creatures in response to environments of various types. Different spatial and temporal distributions of food result in the evolution of very different behavioral strategies, including the use of looping movements as time-keepers in these otherwise cognitively-challenged creatures. Exploring the level of adaptiveness available in even such simple creatures as these serves to establish a baseline to which the adaptive behavior of animats with sensors and internal states can be compared.