arXiv AI By Kevin Vallier

The Theory of Strategic Evolution: Games with Endogenous Players and Strategic Replicators

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arXiv:2512. 07901v3 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Von Neumann founded both game theory and the theory of self-reproducing automata, but the two programs never merged.

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arXiv AI
Sep 12

Tapes Together Strong: The Co-evolution of Computation and Cooperation

The paper introduces Autopoietic Game Theory, a computational model where social interactions, replication mechanisms, and computational costs co-evolve within a substrate of randomly initialized Z80 machine code programs. By embedding a social dilemma directly into the physics of computation, the authors demonstrate that scarcity of resources can make defection self-limiting, leading to the emergence of self-replicating, cooperative strategies. Empirical results show evolved programs suppress stealing, and spatial assortment enhances structural complexity and task performance, while the framework can also incorporate exogenous pressures such as math tasks tied to computation budgets.

By Kunal Jha, Francesco Cicala, Blaise Ag\"uera y Arcas, Blake Aaron Richards, Natasha Jaques, Max Kleiman-Weiner, Eyvind Niklasson