Roles of real-world properties in the Baldwin effect

Lamarck formed the hypothesis Inheritance of acquired characteristics, which states that offspring inherit characters acquired by their parents. However, this hypothesis has now been rejected in the field of genetics. Baldwin offered an explanation for observations of inheritance of acquired characters, despite the fact that they are not inherited; an idea referred to as the Baldwin effect. To verify the Baldwin effect, many studies have been conducted and various numerical simulations have been demonstrated. However, in conventional simulations, the real world is modeled as a simple environment and various properties of the real world are neglected. As a result, effects of universal properties of the real world in evolution have not been discussed. In this study, we considered that universal properties of the real world play important roles in the Baldwin effect. We used the task of escaping from a hunter, and evolved a fugitive agent in a simulated world in which physical properties are used. We investigated the roles of the real-world properties, through conducted simulations, revealed that a fugitive agent was able to reduce learning time by using the real-world properties, thus supporting the occurrence of the Baldwin effect.