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Next: A6. Quantitativestatistical and Up: Overview. Previous: A4. Filing and Printing

A5. Mutations

Network parameters (as well as graphics presentation) can altered ``on the fly``. For example during forward iteration various key presses allow mutations to rules, wiring or current state; the network size can be increased or decreased, and the graphical display of quantitative and analytical data can be changed. A number of 1d ``complex'' rules (with glider interactions) for 5-7-neighbours are provided as files and can be set with a button press. Examples of some of these are presented in (Wuensche 1994b,1995).

When attractor basins are complete, a key press will regenerate the attractor basin of a mutant network. Various mutation options can be pre-set including random bit flips in rule tables, or random rewiring of a given number of wires. Sets of states can be specified and highlighted in the attractor basin to see how mutations affect their distribution.