2021 Darwin Game—River

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/XRRXyn6shXnFxhMeh/2021-darwin-game-river

Contents

Name Carrion Leaves Grass Seeds Detritus Coconuts Algae Lichen

River 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500

Generation 0

At first, there are no animals and the foragables accumulate.

Generations 1-100

Species Original Biome Venom? Weapons Armor Speed Forage? Creator

Leafy Luncheoner Temperate Forest Neither 0 0 1 Leaves Sean Hyer

Mooshroom Grassland Neither 0 0 5 Grass;Seeds Vanessa

slow vulture Desert Antivenom only 0 10 10 Carrion eat (Allows survival in the Desert),Corm

mediocre 1-2-s Grassland Neither 1 0 2 Seeds Corm

Very Lesser Forest Dragon Rainforest Neither 2 0 2

Persephone 0461

The same pattern repeats for each foragable. First the foragable accomulates. Then a species which can consume the foragable appears. Its population explodes until it has eaten the accumulated foragable. Finally, its population reverts to carrying capacity.

Persephone 0461′s Very Lesser Forest Dragon wandered in. It thrived until another predator appeared which hunted it to extinction.

Generations 100-9000

Species appear. Species Disappear. Life is always in flux.

This is where all the Ocean’s Soonbegons were coming from. Until they didn’t anymore.

Winners

Name Native Biome Venom? Attack Armor Speed Forage? Temperature Adaptation? Creator Social Media

Booyahs Desert Neither 2 0 10 Carrion Heat (Allows survival in the Desert) CK None

Snark Temperate Forest Neither 0 0 10 Leaves

Vanessa None

Venomoth Rainforest Venom + Antivenom 0 0 3 Grass

aphyer None

Locust Eater Eater Temperate Forest Neither 2 0 2 Seeds

Multicore None

Hopsplitter Grassland Neither 0 0 10 Grass;Seeds

Nem None

Comment

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/XRRXyn6shXnFxhMeh/2021-darwin-game-river?commentId=puDHKyHzT8khqtj6A

Now it’s the time to admit I created species without any thought for strategy, but solely by the principle of thinking of cool names and then assigning attributes which seemed suitable (yes, it did lead to me to submit a bunch of species with weapons + armor > 10). The fact one of my own survived anyway confirms what I suspected, namely that the game is so complicated that few people could find reliably successful strategies (or maybe it’s just the random?) I guess it also helped that I submitted 10 species and most players submitted much less.

Comment

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/XRRXyn6shXnFxhMeh/2021-darwin-game-river?commentId=pDHns5baBQwkFSkfb

I submitted the exact same 10 speed leaf eater that you did, I just started it in the Temperate Forest. Luck of the draw that yours got here first, I guess.

Comment

What do you mean, you just started it in the Temperate Forest? The Snark comes from the Temperate Forest.

Comment

Ah, I read the wrong line. So yeah, we submitted the exact same creature. There were definitely reliably BAD creatures, and certainly some reliably good ones, but a lot of variance based on the overall makeup of the population. I certainly didn’t expect so many total creatures to be submitted; there was a lot more variability in results with 500-creature populations. In 5000-creature populations, basically the only thing that ever survived was invincibles. With this size population, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that your minimal invincible survived—and certainly wasn’t just luck that you arrived at its design. Give yourself SOME credit. :)

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/XRRXyn6shXnFxhMeh/2021-darwin-game-river?commentId=YEEZKGcQLpbgXsYyw

The fact one of my own survived anyway confirms what I suspected, namely that the game is so complicated that few people could find reliably successful strategies (or maybe it’s just the random?)

I think this is exacerbated in the River and Shore where "what species arrives first" has extra high random variance.

Comment

Well, the Snark also survived in the Human Garbage Dump. [EDIT: And in the Temperate Forest and the Rainforest]

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/XRRXyn6shXnFxhMeh/2021-darwin-game-river?commentId=9uXBhN9wuafKkL5Cu

The same pattern repeats for each foragable. First the foragable accomulates. Then a species which can consume the foragable appears. Its population explodes until it has eaten the accumulated foragable. Finally, its population reverts to carrying capacity. Persephone 0461′s Very Lesser Forest Dragon. It thrived until another predator appeared which hunted it to extinction. Did a sentence or two get left out between these two paragraphs?

Comment

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/XRRXyn6shXnFxhMeh/2021-darwin-game-river?commentId=nuSAXgSrDjcX5e9ck

That was indeed missing words. Fixed. Thanks.