We argue that attempting to quantify open-endedness misses the point: The nature of open-endedness is such that an open-ended system will eventually move outside its current model of behavior, and hence outside any measure based on that model. This presents a challenge for analyzing Artificial Life systems, leading us to conclude that the focus should be on understanding the mechanisms underlying open-endedness, not simply on attempting to quantify it. To demonstrate this, we apply several measures to eight long experimental runs of the spatial version of the Stringmol automata chemistry. These experiments were originally designed to examine the hypothesis that spatial structure provides a defense against parasites. The runs successfully show this defense, but also show a range of innovative, and possibly open-ended, behaviors involved in countering a parasitic arms race. Commencing with system-generic measures, we develop and use a variety of measures dedicated to analyzing some of these innovations. We argue that a process of analysis, starting with system-generic measures but going on to system-specific measures, will be needed wherever the phenomenon of open-endedness is involved.

中文翻译：

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关于检测开放性的开放性

我们认为，试图量化开放性没有抓住要点：开放性的本质是开放系统最终会超出其当前的行为模型，因此会超出基于该模型的任何衡量标准。这对分析人工生命系统提出了挑战，使我们得出结论，重点应该放在理解开放性背后的机制上，而不仅仅是试图对其进行量化。为了证明这一点，我们对 Stringmol 自动机化学的空间版本的八次长实验运行应用了几种措施。这些实验最初是为了检验空间结构可以抵御寄生虫的假设。跑步成功地展示了这种防御，但也展示了一系列创新的，可能是开放式的，参与对抗寄生军备竞赛的行为。从系统通用措施开始，我们开发并使用了各种专门用于分析其中​​一些创新的措施。我们认为，只要涉及开放性现象，就需要一个分析过程，从系统通用措施开始，然后继续到系统特定措施。