Blind Watchmaker Program

The watchmaker framework bundles the uncommons maths library which includes several rngs.

Blind watchmaker program. Think pascal 4 0 compiler with supplied patch installed. Why the evidence of evolution reveals a universe without design is a 1986 book by richard dawkins in which the author presents an explanation of and argument for the theory of evolution by means of natural selection he also presents arguments to refute certain criticisms made on his first book the selfish gene. In chapter 3 of his book the blind watchmaker dawkins gave the following introduction to the program referencing the well known infinite monkey theorem. The third chapter of the blind watchmaker is dedicated to the biomorph program developed by dawkins that points out the power of micro mutations and cumulative selection.

Here is my implementation of the biomorph program described by richard dawkins in the blind watchmaker. The television film of the book shown in the horizon series won the sci tech prize for the best science programme of 1987. Dawkins started from a conventional recursive algorithm. Both books espouse the gene centric view of evolution.

Richard dawkins watchmaker suite second edition think pascal free pascal fpdoc this important. This program serves as a demonstration of evolution by artificial selection. Think pascal project files for all source code with resource rsrc files included. Although the blind watchmaker program starts off with a simple branching tree it rapidly wanders off into a wonderland of evolved forms many with a strange beauty and some depending on the intentions of the human player coming to resemble familiar creatures such as insects spiders or starfish.

Select the biomorph most pleasing to you and it s slightly mutated offspring will appear on the screen. I recently read a book called the blind watchmaker written by richard dawkins. Blind watchmaker is a suite of four programs written by richard dawkins for his two books the blind watchmaker and climbing mount improbable the programs demonstrate evolution happening in real time using artificial creatures called biomorphs the pictures of the biomorph s bodies are drawn by the computer based on a set of numbers in the computer which dawkins calls genes. For each iteration a new connection is generated.

I don t know who it was first pointed out that given enough time a monkey bashing away at random on a typewriter could produce all the works of shakespeare the operative phrase is of course given enough time. Continue selecting to steer the course of evolution for these simple creatures. Starting from a trunk to any new iteration corresponds a sub branch. Why the evidence of evolution reveals a universe without design.

Richard dawkins the blind watchmaker bbc horizon 1987. Working modern and legacy compiled versions of all four watchmaker programs. The los angeles times literary prize in 1987 for the blind watchmaker. He has also won the 1989 silver medal of the zoological society of london and the 1990 royal society michael faraday award for the.

The watchmaker download includes source code for several example programs including the applets that are featured on this website. On the left is a safari park of creatures that just one player of the game me found in. The aim was to generate tree forms. This code may help in understanding how the various components are.