  The Game of Life (GoL), one well known 2D cellular automaton, does not
typically ensure interesting long-term phenotypic dynamics. Therefore, while
being Turing complete, GoL cannot be said to be open-ended. In this work, we
extend GoL with the opportunity for local mutations, thus enabling a
heterogeneous life-like cellular automaton guided by an evolutionary inner
loop. Additionally, we introduce the concept of cell ageing to ensure that cell
aliveness (activated by inheritance with variation, and controlled by ageing)
and actual cell computation (governed by life-like rules on local
neighborhoods) are kept conceptually separated. We conduct an experimental
campaign to identify suitable parameters that produce long-term phenotypic
dynamics and favor genotypic innovations.
