We introduce a numerical scheme to evolve functional materials that can
accomplish a specified mechanical task. In this scheme, the number of
solutions, their spatial architectures and the correlations among them can be
computed. As an example, we consider an "allosteric" task, which requires the
material to respond specifically to a stimulus at a distant active site. We
find that functioning materials evolve a less-constrained trumpet-shaped region
connecting the stimulus and active sites and that the amplitude of the elastic
response varies non-monotonically along the trumpet. As previously shown for
some proteins, we find that correlations appearing during evolution alone are
sufficient to identify key aspects of this design. Finally, we show that the
success of this architecture stems from the emergence of soft edge modes
recently found to appear near the surface of marginally connected materials.
Overall, our in silico evolution experiment offers a new window to study the
relationship between structure, function, and correlations emerging during
evolution.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, SI: 2 pages, 4 figure
