All embodied agents are fundamentally patterns in physiological or other excitable media, blurring the distinction between objects and processes. Emergent patterns with complex behaviors, such as Gliders in the Game of Life and virtual patterns in Lenia, are powerful model systems in which to understand the properties and origins of behavioral traits in novel agents. To evaluate the behavior of patterns in Lenia, we introduce regions into their environment from which no sensory information is available - in effect, making creatures blind to parts of their surroundings. Complementing the conventional concept of infotaxis, we find that creatures tend to avoid these regions, a behavior we term agnosiophobia. To explain this behavior, we map each test creature's sensitivity to targeted occlusions and interpret the results in the language of dynamical systems. We observe Lenia creatures taking advantage of their freedom to change heading in order to achieve what appears to be a more fundamental goal: the preservation of their morphology. This work illustrates the beginning of an important roadmap to understand how emergent agents' behavioral propensities interact with the informational, not only tangible, topography of their world.

翻译：所有具身智能体本质上都是生理或其他可激介质中的模式，这模糊了对象与过程之间的界限。具有复杂行为的涌现模式（如生命游戏中的滑翔机及Lenia环境中的虚拟模式）是理解新型智能体行为特征起源与特性的强大模型系统。为评估Lenia中模式的行为，我们在其环境中引入了无法获取感官信息的区域——这实际上使智能体对部分环境"失明"。作为信息趋近概念的补充，我们发现智能体倾向于回避这些区域，我们将这种行为称为"未知恐惧症"。为解释该行为，我们绘制了每个测试智能体对定向遮挡的敏感度图谱，并运用动力学系统语言解读结果。我们观察到Lenia智能体利用改变行进方向的自由度，以实现一个更为根本的目标：维持其形态完整性。这项研究揭示了理解涌现智能体行为倾向如何与其世界中信息地形（而非仅物理地形）相互作用的重要路线图的开端。