Seeking open-ended evolution in swarm chemistry II: Analyzing long-term dynamics via automated object harvesting

We studied the long-term dynamics of evolutionary Swarm Chemistry by extending the simulation length ten-fold compared to earlier work and by developing and using a new automated object harvesting method. Both macroscopic dynamics and microscopic object features were characterized and tracked using several measures. Results showed that the evolutionary dynamics tended to settle down into a stable state after the initial transient period, and that the extent of environmental perturbations also affected the evolutionary trends substantially. In the meantime, the automated harvesting method successfully produced a huge collection of spontaneously evolved objects, revealing the system's autonomous creativity at an unprecedented scale.