Guide evolution toward increasingly complex functions in computational life

Ascertain whether there exist principled methods to steer the evolution of interacting, self-modifying program populations toward increasingly complex functions in the studied computational substrates, and, if so, develop and evaluate such guidance mechanisms.

Background

The experiments reveal that replicators can arise and dominate without explicit fitness landscapes, and further complex dynamics may follow. However, the paper does not investigate targeted interventions to promote specific functional complexity beyond spontaneous emergence.

This open question seeks strategies to guide or bias evolutionary trajectories in these systems toward richer capabilities while preserving their spontaneous, substrate-driven dynamics.