In the same issue, Laland, a professor of biology at the University of St. Andrews in the UK, reported on the results of a computerized competition he and his collaborators had set up. This was a multi-round tournament in which the contenders—bots that had been programmed to behave in particular ways—battled to victory for a monetary prize. A hundred entrants from around the world had faced off, each designed to act according to one of three strategies (or a combination thereof): applying original ideas, engaging in trial and error, or copying others.
