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layout, title, categories, tags, excerpt, header, scholar_link
layout | title | categories | tags | excerpt | header | scholar_link | ||
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single | Extended Self-Replication | research | artificial-life complex-systems neural-networks self-organization dynamical-systems | Journal extension: self-replication, noise robustness, emergence, dynamical system analysis. |
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https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=NODAd94AAAAJ&hl=en |

This journal article provides an extended and more in-depth exploration of self-replicating neural networks, building upon earlier foundational work (Gabor et al., 2019). The research further investigates the use of backpropagation-like mechanisms not for typical supervised learning, but as an effective means to enable non-trivial self-replication – where networks learn to reproduce their own connection weights.
Key extensions and analyses presented in this work include:
- Robustness Analysis: A systematic evaluation of the self-replicating networks' resilience and stability when subjected to various levels of noise during the replication process.
- Artificial Chemistry Environments: Further development and analysis of simulated environments where populations of self-replicating networks interact, leading to observable emergent collective behaviors and ecosystem dynamics.
- Dynamical Systems Perspective: A detailed theoretical analysis of the self-replication process viewed as a dynamical system. This includes identifying fixpoint weight configurations (networks that perfectly replicate themselves) and characterizing their attractor basins (the regions in weight space from which networks converge towards a specific fixpoint).

By delving deeper into the mechanisms, robustness, emergent properties, and underlying dynamics, this study significantly enhances the understanding of how self-replication can be achieved and analyzed within neural network models, contributing valuable insights to the fields of artificial life and complex systems. {% cite gabor2022self %}