Ubuntu Manpage: biogenesis - Biogenesis, an artificial life program focused on evolution

NAME

       biogenesis - Biogenesis, an artificial life program focused on evolution

SYNOPSIS

       biogenesis [RANDOM_SEED]

DESCRIPTION

This program imitates the evolutionary processes that happens on unicellular organism
populations in nature. It has been tried to create an example of the elemental bacterial
processes, simplifying them a lot and presenting them in a visual and comprehensible
manner. Although it is not scientifically exact, regular mechanisms on bacterial evolution
and life can be observed and it can be interesting as a didactic approximation to concepts
like mutation, evolution or photosynthesis. It is also a good entertainment.

The organisms that will populate this world are not representations of natural unicellular
organisms, but an abstraction has been used to be able to look more clearly at their
virtual life. These organisms are formed by segments of different colors and lengths. The
organism's segments color and length establish its properties, so that we can know what
can an organism do only by looking at it on the screen. Moreover, these segments'
configuration is a representation in the world of its genetic code, which its descendants
will inherit in an identical form, with the exception of random mutations that can happen
in each generation.

Organisms that obtain beneficial mutations will be the most successful ones, on the
reproductive point of view, and will create a large number of descendants that will
propagate its genes and its mutation in the future. However, those that suffer from a less
appropriate mutation will not take a long time to die without being able to extend their
species' lives longer than their own lives.

OPTIONS

       RANDOM_SEED
              This  number  determines the sequence of the random numbers that will be generated.
              This way it is possible to recreate several times the same  scenario  if  the  same
              number is introduced.

PERFORMANCE

       This  program  has  a  high  CPU consumption. You need to set a few parameters in order to
       adapt it to your hardware.

       These are the parameters that you should configure. Remember  that  you  can  do  this  by
       selecting the Parameters option under the World menu.

        *  OpenGL: The use of the OpenGL libraries greatly increases program's speed. This option
       is deselected by default because it doesn't work on all hardware and drivers combinations.
       You should try to enable it and restart the program. If it crashes or doesn't work, OpenGL
       will be disabled next time you run it.

        * Disable fbobject: Due to a bug in some graphic drivers, it may be necessary to activate
       this  option  for the OpenGL to work. If the first time that you try to activate them they
       don't work, try to activate them with this option.

        * Time per frame: This parameter controls the speed that the program will try  to  reach.
       If  it  is  consuming  a lot of CPU you should raise it, and if it is not and you want the
       process to execute faster, you should lower it.

        * Initial carbon dioxide: The CO2 is the limiting factor  to  life  expansion.  More  CO2
       means more organisms will populate the world, and more CPU needed to calculate their moves
       and draw them. If you change this parameter, it may be a good idea  to  change  the  world
       size accordingly to keep the same CO2 concentration.

AUTHOR

       Written by Joan Queralt Molina <joanq.biogenesis@gmail.com>.
       This  manual  page  was  originally written by Miriam Ruiz <little_miry@yahoo.es> and Joan
       Queralt.

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright © 2006-2011 Joan Queralt Molina <joanq.biogenesis@gmail.com>
       This is Free Software; this software is licensed under the GPL version 2, as published  by
       the  Free  Software  Foundation.   There  is  NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or
       FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.