# An Overview of Open-Ended Evolution: Editorial Introduction to the Open-Ended Evolution II Special Issue

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1909.04430 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.04430/

## Key facts

- Cited by 10 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 10 Sep 2019.

## Built on by (most cited first, 10 of 10)

- [A Definition of Open-Ended Learning Problems for Goal-Conditioned Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.00344/) (2023)
- [Evolution and The Knightian Blindspot of Machine Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.13075/) (2025)
- [From Text to Life: On the Reciprocal Relationship between Artificial Life and Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.09502/) (2024)
- [Spore in the Wild: A Case Study of Spore.fun as an Open-Environment Evolution Experiment with Sovereign AI Agents on TEE-Secured Blockchains](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.04236/) (2025)
- [Safety Must Precede the Deployment of Open-Ended AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.04512/) (2025)
- [Shall We Play a Game? Language Models for Open-ended Wargames](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.17192/) (2025)
- [Evolutionary Computation for the Design and Enrichment of General-Purpose Artificial Intelligence Systems: Survey and Prospects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.08745/) (2024)
- [Multi-Agent Interplay in a Competitive Survival Environment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.08030/) (2023)
- [Neuroevolution Arena: Nested Ecological Evaluation of Update-and-Inheritance Regimes across Neural Architectures](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.10323/) (2026)
- [Hyper Algorithm Design Agent: Evolving Learnable Optimizer from Zero](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.35328/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Nature's spectacular inventiveness, reflected in the enormous diversity of form and function displayed by the biosphere, is a feature of life that distinguishes living most strongly from nonliving. It is, therefore, not surprising that this aspect of life should become a central focus of artificial life. We have known since Darwin that the diversity is produced dynamically, through the process of evolution; this has led life's creative productivity to be called Open-Ended Evolution (OEE) in the field. This article introduces the second of two special issues on current research in OEE and provides an overview of the contents of both special issues. Most of the work was presented at a workshop on open-ended evolution that was held as a part of the 2018 Conference on Artificial Life in Tokyo, and much of it had antecedents in two previous workshops on open-ended evolution at artificial life conferences in Cancun and York. We present a simplified categorization of OEE and summarize progress in the field as represented by the articles in this special issue.