Avida (software)
Artificial life software platform
title: "Avida (software)" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["artificial-life", "artificial-life-models", "digital-organisms"] description: "Artificial life software platform" topic_path: "science/biology" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avida_(software)" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Artificial life software platform ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox software"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| screenshot | Avida_2.6_screenshot.png |
| caption | Map tab for Avida 2.6 |
| author | Charles Ofria, Chris Adami |
| developer | Charles Ofria |
| latest release version | 2.14.0 |
| latest release date | {{cite web |
| url | https://sourceforge.net/projects/avida/ |
| title | Avida Digital Life Platform download |
| website | sourceforge.net |
| date | 6 February 2014 |
| access-date | 2021-03-27 |
| operating system | Microsoft Windows 7 or later, macOS 10.8 or later, Linux / Unix. |
| programming language | C++, Objective-C |
| genre | Artificial life |
| license | LGPL |
| :: |
| name = | screenshot = Avida_2.6_screenshot.png | caption = Map tab for Avida 2.6 | author = Charles Ofria, Chris Adami | developer = Charles Ofria | latest release version = 2.14.0 | latest release date = {{cite web | url = https://sourceforge.net/projects/avida/ | title = Avida Digital Life Platform download | website = sourceforge.net | date = 6 February 2014 | access-date = 2021-03-27 | operating system = Microsoft Windows 7 or later, macOS 10.8 or later, Linux / Unix. | programming language = C++, Objective-C | genre = Artificial life | license = LGPL
Avida is an artificial life software platform to study the evolutionary biology of self-replicating and evolving computer programs (digital organisms). Avida is under active development by Charles Ofria's Digital Evolution Lab at Michigan State University; the first version of Avida was designed in 1993 by Ofria, Chris Adami and C. Titus Brown at Caltech, and has been fully reengineered by Ofria on multiple occasions since then. The software was originally inspired by the Tierra system.
Design principles
Tierra simulated an evolutionary system by introducing computer programs that competed for computer resources, specifically processor (CPU) time and access to main memory. In this respect it was similar to Core Wars, but differed in that the programs being run in the simulation were able to modify themselves, and thereby evolve. Tierra's programs were artificial life organisms.
Unlike Tierra, Avida assigns every digital organism its own protected region of memory, and executes it with a separate virtual CPU. By default, other digital organisms cannot access this memory space, neither for reading nor for writing, and cannot execute code that is not in their own memory space.
A second major difference is that the virtual CPUs of different organisms can run at different speeds, such that one organism executes, for example, twice as many instructions in the same time interval as another organism. The speed at which a virtual CPU runs is determined by a number of factors, but most importantly, by the tasks that the organism performs: logical computations that the organisms can carry out to reap extra CPU speed as bonus.
Use in research
Adami and Ofria, in collaboration with others, have used Avida to conduct research in digital evolution, and the scientific journals Nature and Science have published four of their papers.
The 2003 paper "The Evolutionary Origin of Complex Features" describes the evolution of a mathematical equals operation from simpler bitwise operations.
Use in education
| name = Avida-ED | author = Jeff Clune | developer = Diane J. Blackwood | latest release version = 3 | latest release date = {{cite web | url = https://github.com/DBlackwood/AvidaED_user_interface | title = Avida-ED User Interface | website = github.com | access-date = 2021-10-11 | programming language = C++, JavaScript | genre = Artificial life | license = GPL | website = Main: , Mirror:
The Avida-ED project (Avida-ED) uses the Avida software platform within a simplified graphical user interface suitable for use in evolution education instruction at the high school and undergraduate college level, and provides freely available software, documentation, tutorials, lesson plans, and other course materials.{{Cite web | title = Online tool speeds up evolution education | author = Anonymous | work = ScienceDaily | date = 5 February 2018 | access-date = 3 July 2021 | url = https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180205113043.htm | quote = The Avida-ED project was the winner of the 2017 International Society for Artificial Life Education and Outreach Award.{{Cite web | title = 2017 ISAL Awards: Winners - Artificial Life | last = Taylor | first = Tim | work = Artificial Life | date = 16 September 2017 | access-date = 3 July 2021 | url = https://alife.org/2017-isal-awards-winners/ | quote =
References
- "Testing Darwin", Discover Magazine, February 2005.
References
- (2003). "The evolutionary origin of complex features". Nature.
- (2016). "An Avida-ED digital evolution curriculum for undergraduate biology". Evolution: Education and Outreach.
- (2016). "WebAL Comes of Age: A Review of the First 21 Years of Artificial Life on the Web". Artificial Life.
- (2018). "Exploring the Relationship between Experiences with Digital Evolution and Students' Scientific Understanding and Acceptance of Evolution". The American Biology Teacher.
- (2020). "Evaluating the Use of Avida-ED Digital Organisms to Teach Evolution & Natural Selection". The American Biology Teacher.
- (2014). "Modeling Evolution in the Classroom". The American Biology Teacher.
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