{"id":26135,"date":"2026-06-24T01:31:46","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T01:31:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/06\/24\/directing-open-ended-evolution-in-artificial-life-via-multi-scale-path-divergence-astrobiology-com\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T01:31:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T01:31:46","slug":"directing-open-ended-evolution-in-artificial-life-via-multi-scale-path-divergence-astrobiology-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/06\/24\/directing-open-ended-evolution-in-artificial-life-via-multi-scale-path-divergence-astrobiology-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Directing Open-Ended Evolution in Artificial Life via Multi-Scale Path Divergence &#8211; astrobiology.com"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Open-ended evolution (OEE) in artificial life is typically driven by uninterpretable, black-box neural-network complexity metrics, leaving life-like systems disconnected from physical theories of complexity.<br \/>We introduce MSPD (Multi-Scale Path Divergence, denoted DP ), a renormalization-group-inspired scalar that quantifies the temporal multiscale organization of heterogeneity in local transition laws. MSPD is defined at the population level as a functional of the realised trajectory and is computed as a windowed finite-resolution estimator, with consistency between the two stated as a proposition.<br \/>The metric is an explicit formula and plays a dual role: as a gradient-free fitness function and as a post-hoc analytical lens on any simulation that exposes local transition laws. Empirically, MSPD-optimized parameters produce higher held-out complexity scores than matched random parameters from the same substrate.<br \/>High-HDeltat states correspond to states with higher instability to external interventions, so the metric tracks the biology of the underlying dynamics rather than noise. Higher MSPD corresponds to stronger scale-dependent frustration: high-complexity systems exhibit larger differences between the dynamics expressed at different spatial extents, linking MSPD directly to the frustration criterion of biological complexity in the sense of Vanchurin et al..<br \/>The same protocol transfers beyond the primary Flow-Lenia substrate to Life-like cellular automata and Particle Life++, where C1, C2 and C5 all hold. A single explicit formula thus both directs open-ended evolution and provides a principled bridge to the physics of complexity that black-box drivers do not.<br \/>Mikhail Akhtyrchenko, Mikhail I. Katsnelson, Andrey Ustyuzhanin<br \/>Subjects: Neural and Evolutionary Computing (cs.NE); Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech); Cellular Automata and Lattice Gases (nlin.CG)<br \/>Cite as: arXiv:2606.17091 [cs.NE] (or arXiv:2606.17091v1 [cs.NE] for this version)<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.48550\/arXiv.2606.17091\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.48550\/arXiv.2606.17091<\/a><br \/>Focus to learn more<br \/>Submission history<br \/>From: Andrey Ustyuzhanin<br \/>[v1] Fri, 12 Jun 2026 22:24:12 UTC (2,695 KB)<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2606.17091\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2606.17091<\/a><br \/>Astrobiology,<br \/>Biologist, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Biologist and Payload integrator, Editor of NASAWatch.com and Astrobiology.com, Lapsed climber, Explorer, Synaesthete, Former Challenger Center board member \ud83d\udd96\ud83c\udffb<br \/>2026 \u00a9 Reston Communications. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/rss\/articles\/CBMiuwFBVV95cUxOeDh1YVpodTVHSElQcUc3TFJKTW16OFVyNUxkekVnZWdwbi1Ma0ZWSGVlZDU2ejJOZWZybjVtbGVyWkJQbG1VcjNqZm5qRVlseDR4ellJZHJYSS1VLUFoalZqdUx6OFJBUjdWWXk2QTRxM0d3SWNLN3JPYjc0d3JOZVBLcHgySGxzTVU2X1Y0djlBRGhid3hxTWxVQlV0MnFIOTNVeDRMOTR0bFVuNGdZaU42bEZ2RVNFT3FJ?oc=5\">source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Open-ended evolution (OEE) in artificial life is typically driven by uninterpretable, black-box neural-network complexity metrics, leaving life-like systems disconnected from physical theories of complexity.We introduce MSPD (Multi-Scale Path Divergence, denoted DP ), a renormalization-group-inspired scalar that quantifies the temporal multiscale organization of heterogeneity in local transition laws. MSPD is defined at the population level as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}