A recent branch of research in artificial life has constructed artificial chemistry systems whose particles are dynamic neural networks. These particles can be applied to each other and show a tendency towards self-replication of their weight values. We define new interactions for said particles that allow them to recognize one another and learn predictors for each other’s behavior. For instance, each particle minimizes its surprise when observing another particle’s behavior. Given a special catalyst particle to exert evolutionary selection pressure on the soup of particles, these ‘social’ interactions are sufficient to produce emergent behavior similar to the stability pattern previously only achieved via explicit self-replication training.

Self-replicating neural networks can be trained to output a representation of themselves, making them navigate towards non-trivial fixpoints in their weight space. We explore the problem of adding a secondary functionality to the primary task of replication. We find a successful solution in training the networks with separate input/output vectors for one network trained in both tasks so that the additional task does not hinder (and even stabilizes) the self-replication task. Furthermore, we observe the interaction of our goal-networks in an artificial chemistry environment. We examine the influence of different action parameters on the population and their effects on the group's learning capability. Lastly we show the possibility of safely guiding the whole group to goal-fulfilling weight configurations via the inclusion of one specially-developed guiding particle that is able to propagate a secondary task to its peers.

The foundation of biological structures is self-replication. Neural networks are the prime structure used for the emergent construction of complex behavior in computers. We analyze how various network types lend themselves to self-replication. We argue that backpropagation is the natural way to navigate the space of network weights and show how it allows non-trivial self-replicators to arise naturally. We then extend the setting to construct an artificial chemistry environment of several neural networks.