Emergent Rhythms in an Artificial Chemical World
Using 'Genetic Switches'

Hiroaki Inayoshi [1] (inayoshi@etl.go.jp)
Hitoshi Iba [2] (iba@etl.go.jp)

[1] Computer Science Division
[2] Machine Understanding Division
Electrotechnical Laboratory (ETL)
1-1-4 Umezono, Tsukuba 305 Japan

This paper describes a model of the artificial chemical world and its computer simulation, in which rhythms emerge. The model specifies four items of the artificial chemical world: (1) components (five kinds of particles and DNA having Genetic Switches); (2) space (2-dimensional polar grids); (3) simple reaction rules (construction and destruction of molecules, etc.); (4) simple behavioral rules (stochastic movements and stochastic collisions, etc.); The simulation shows the capability The simulation demonstrates the capability of the system to exhibit emergent behavior: that is, global order of the system (regular rhythms in this case) emerges out of randomness (thorough stochastic movements and collisions) of its components.