Soft Artificial Life, Artificial Agents and Artificial Economics

This paper describes the results of a simulation to demonstrate the principles and emergent intelligence associated with artificial life. Economic theory can be applied to artificial life in order to analyze and model adaptive or intelligent behaviors. This research is concerned with the principles whereby an animats competent for its resources, and so demonstrates intelligent behavior. This approach necessasarily requires the design and test of a range of simple and complex computational agents. The developed micro-agents in a fungus world testbed are designed to investigate artificial minds for animals and synthetic agents, drawing on qualities found in the natural minds. Qualities such as level of decision making, its cost function and utility behavior (the microeconomic level), physiological and goal oriented behavior are investigated. Agent behaviors can be analyzed using many different metrics; for example, metabolic activity, competition and social interaction with respect to environment and microeconomics.