One last thing - looks like I accidentally coded in a weird error that makes the runt gene a lot worse than it should be. If a family has just enough food (i.e. 4 kids, 4 food) then a runt will sacrifice itself for no reason at all.
See example below, where a family of 6 runt-gene-carriers sacrifices itself down to 2 children, with 3 food available. Whoops.
"r" families sacrifice gene-carriers at benefit to non-gene-carriers; the turning point appears to be that once you start to see "rr" families, they are sacrificing gene-carriers purely to benefit gene-carriers. That's when the gene begins to completely dominate.
Made this sim to test out a hypothetical gene from The Selfish Gene:
"A gene that gives the instruction 'Body, if you are very much smaller than your litter-mates, give up the struggle and die', could be successful in the gene pool, because it has a 50 per cent chance of being in the body of each brother and sister saved."
My implementation is not "if you are very much smaller than your litter-mates," rather it is "if your litter is going to starve and you are the smallest one," but aside from that I think it is a relatively faithful interpretation.
Often the mutated gene does not survive. It can struggle for a while, flickering at 1-6 individuals, and die out. (Sometimes it dies in the very first generation by sheer dumb bad luck. That's life.) If it reaches a certain critical mass, though, it eventually spreads throughout the entire population.
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One last thing - looks like I accidentally coded in a weird error that makes the runt gene a lot worse than it should be. If a family has just enough food (i.e. 4 kids, 4 food) then a runt will sacrifice itself for no reason at all.
See example below, where a family of 6 runt-gene-carriers sacrifices itself down to 2 children, with 3 food available. Whoops.
Also of interest: A population of all gene-carriers maintains a higher and more stable population than a population of no gene-carriers.
(All rr hovers around 50-60, while no r fluctuates between 25-50)
"r" families sacrifice gene-carriers at benefit to non-gene-carriers; the turning point appears to be that once you start to see "rr" families, they are sacrificing gene-carriers purely to benefit gene-carriers. That's when the gene begins to completely dominate.
Made this sim to test out a hypothetical gene from The Selfish Gene:
"A gene that gives the instruction 'Body, if you are very much smaller than your litter-mates, give up the struggle and die', could be successful in the gene pool, because it has a 50 per cent chance of being in the body of each brother and sister saved."
My implementation is not "if you are very much smaller than your litter-mates," rather it is "if your litter is going to starve and you are the smallest one," but aside from that I think it is a relatively faithful interpretation.
Often the mutated gene does not survive. It can struggle for a while, flickering at 1-6 individuals, and die out. (Sometimes it dies in the very first generation by sheer dumb bad luck. That's life.) If it reaches a certain critical mass, though, it eventually spreads throughout the entire population.