Contribution from the 2000 Meeting of the French Society of Theoretical Biology

The progress in artificial intelligence enables us to conceive adaptive systems whose characteristics are nearer and nearer to those of living beings. These characteristics though depend on ingenious choices by the designer of these systems: Initial conditions, parameters, optimisation functions, gradient and measure of fitness within the environment. Nevertheless, in living systems which are non-finalist, there are no programmers or designers to conceive of such ingenious choices. Our paper Self-Programming Machines I presents a non-finalist model since initial states and functions are randomly chosen at the beginning and once and for all. In spite of the fact that they are non-finalist, these machines always stabilise at fixed points when they are connected to an external process. This paper studies the dynamics of a mono-layered network of self-programming machines driving a real device, the Ashby homeostat, and shows the striking properties of such networks. This system stabilises only at fixed points even if it is subjected to small perturbations or intentional breakdowns such as a reversal of power supply or disconnection of one or several motors. Real and simulated experiences are compared and theoretical results are demonstrated