DOCSLIB.ORG

An Emergence of Coordinated Communication in Populations Of

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
An Emergence of Coordinated Communication in Populations Of An Emergence of Coordinated Vladimir Kvasnicka Jiri Pospichal Communication in Populations Department of Mathematics of Agents Slovak Technical University 812 37 Bratislava Slovakia [email protected] [email protected] Abstract The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that coordinated communication spontaneously emerges in a Keywords population composed of agents that are capable of specific genetic algorithms, coordinated communication, emergence, agent, cognitive activities. Internal states of agents are characterized Darwinian evolution, Baldwin by meaning vectors. Simple neural networks composed of effect, Dawkins’ memes one layer of hidden neurons perform cognitive activities of agents. An elementary communication act consists of the following: (a) two agents are selected, where one of them is declared the speaker and the other the listener; (b) the speaker codes a selected meaning vector onto a sequence of symbols and sends it to the listener as a message; and finally, (c) the listener decodes this message into a meaning vector and adapts his or her neural network such that the differences between speaker and listener meaning vectors are decreased. A Darwinian evolution enlarged by ideas from the Baldwin effect and Dawkins’ memes is simulated by a simple version of an evolutionary algorithm without crossover. The agent fitness is determined by success of the mutual pairwise communications. It is demonstrated that agents in the course of evolution gradually do a better job of decoding received messages (they are closer to meaning vectors of speakers) and all agents gradually start to use the same vocabulary for the common communication. Moreover, if agent meaning vectors contain regularities, then these regularities are manifested also in messages created by agent speakers, that is, similar parts of meaning vectors are coded by similar symbol substrings. This observation is considered a manifestation of the emergence of a grammar system in the common coordinated communication. 1 Introduction Human language [9, 10, 30] makes it possible to express a huge number of quite different meanings by token sequences composed of a small number of simple elements, and to interpret such sequences by the meanings that they contain. A standard meaning of the term “grammar” refers to the systematic regularities between meanings and their representation by token sequences in a language. These structural regularities of a language constitute a basis for expressions of novel meaning combinations. The hearer can accurately interpret the received sequences as involving those familiar structures and relations, even though their specific combinations may have never been used before. This means that a communication system endowed with a grammar can be used to express new unusual meanings related to specific situations. The ability to c 2000 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Artificial Life 5: 319–342 (1999) Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/106454699568809 by guest on 25 September 2021 V. Kvasnicka and J. Pospichal An Emergence of Coordinated Communication communicate by a system composed of structural regularities represents an important achievement of a species, for which coordinated social activities are vital to survive, and where an accurate communication between two individuals from the same species represents a definite selection advantage. When this benefit is recognized, it is natural to explain language communication as the result of Darwinian natural selection [21, 22, 28]. The creation of coordinated communication between agents can be interpreted as an emergence of a new phenomenon in a population of agents that are capable of specific pairwise communication accompanied by a learning process. Starting from the general ideas of Darwinian evolutionary theory, a source of emergence of coordinated communication in a population of agents may be found in the ability of coordinated communication to increase agent fitness; that is, there exists a selection pressure for a spontaneous emergence of coordinated communication. Individuals that are incapable of coordinated communication are strongly handicapped. Their evaluated fitness is substantially lower than that of those agents that are capable of coordinated commu- nication. Frequency of appearance of individuals that are not capable of coordinated communication decreases in the course of evolution. The purpose of this article is to study a hypothesis that coordinated communication together with grammar regularities are the result of an evolutionary process running in a population composed of individuals, or agents. These agents are endowed with an ability to perform specific cognitive activities. By the term coordinated communication we mean an exchange of messages between agents that is unified (with the same semantic contents) for the whole population. For elementary communication acts the term “coordinated” implies that both speaker and listener understand each message in the same way. This requirement is formally expressed by a sequence of elementary steps in the communication act: The speaker’s internal state (e.g., corresponding to an internal representation of the environment) is coded into a signal-message (token sequence) received by the listener, who decodes this message into a form of internal state: A selection of speaker’s internal state, ⇒ transformation of this internal state into a message represented by a token sequence, ⇒ the speaker sends the message to the listener, and ⇒ the received message is decoded by the listener into a form of internal state. From this simple communication scheme it immediately follows that agents should be capable of specific cognitive activities that consist of coding the internal states onto mes- sages represented by token sequences (direct cognitive activity) and also in decoding the received messages onto internal states (an inverse cognitive activity). Moreover, the listener compares internal states constructed from the received messages with original internal states of speakers. If these internal states, original and decoded, are different, then the listener modifies parameters of his or her cognitive device so that differences between speaker and listener internal states in the forthcoming interaction between agents decrease. We presume that the speaker’s internal states correspond to some external surrounding reality, which can also be determined by a listener. Therefore we postulate that a listener can find out in some other way the internal state of the speaker. The problem of emergence of coordinated communication, where cognitive activ- ities of agents are performed in many different ways, is very intensively studied in the current artificial life literature [3, 5–7, 16, 26, 29, 31–33, 35] as well as in that of evolutionary linguistics [21–24, 27]. The present article is based on Batali’s idea [5, 6] that neural networks represent agent cognitive devices. We substantially enlarged this 320 Artificial Life Volume 5, Number 4 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/106454699568809 by guest on 25 September 2021 V. Kvasnicka and J. Pospichal An Emergence of Coordinated Communication interesting idea so that the Baldwin effect [4, 8, 19, 25, 34] and Dawkins’ memes [11] are considered as well. Batali studied the emergence of language only in the span of one epoch of evolution, whereas in the present article the emergence spans many epochs, allowing reproduction of the best agents, inheritance and spread of memes throughout generations. Recently, a similar approach was studied by Steels [33], who explored the emergence of a common vocabulary enhanced by cultural transmission. However, his model included neither neural networks nor learning with the Baldwin effect. Even though his “cultural heritage” was transmitted by a similar process as the communication act itself, it may not be the best model in biological reality, where the meaning of a new word is understood in childhood mainly through situation evaluation enhanced by feelings. 2 Darwinian Evolution, Baldwin Effect, and Dawkins’ Memes Darwinian evolution is based on the principle of natural selection, according to which only the best-adapted individuals from a population survive. By reproduction of strong individuals offspring are produced that will be with high probability well adjusted for survival. In 1896 Baldwin [4] proposed a hypothesis: If learning helps survival, then the organisms best able to learn will have the most offspring, thus increasing the frequency of genes responsible for learning. If the environment remains relatively fixed, so that the most profitable information to learn remains constant, selection can lead to a genetic encoding of a trait that originally had to be learned. Baldwin called this mechanism “organic selection,” but it was later dubbed the “Baldwin effect.” As an extension of the Baldwin effect we consider Dawkins’ theory of memes [11]. Memes are ideas (messages) broadcasted throughout the whole population and are composed of useful information on how to increase fitness of chromosomes. Dawkins assumed that memes might be important for an acceleration of evolution. Many social traits (e.g., altruism) are discussed in the framework of population genetics [14, 15] only with some strong restrictions and assumptions that are not acceptable to all evolutionary biologists. An application of Dawkins’ memes represents a plausible possibility to explain and interpret many features of social behavior of
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Culture and the Baldwin Effect
    Culture and the Baldwin Effect Diego Federici1 Norwegian University of Science and Technology Department of computer and information science N-7491 Trondheim, Norway [email protected], http://www.idi.ntnu.no/~federici Abstract. It is believed that the second phase of the Baldwin effect is basically governed by the cost of learning. In this paper we argue that when learning takes place the fitness landscape undergoes a modification that might block the Baldwin effect even if the cost of learning is high. The argument is that learning strategies will bias the evolutionary pro- cess towards individuals that genetically acquire better compared to in- dividuals that genetically behave better. Once this process starts the probability of experiencing the Baldwin effect decreases dramatically, whatever the learning cost. A simulation with evolving learning indi- viduals capable of communication is set to show this effect. The set of acquired behaviors (culture) competes with the instinctive one (genes) giving rise to a co-evolutionary effect. 1 Introduction 1.1 The Baldwin effect In the context of the debate between Darwinism and Lamarckism, James Mark Baldwin (1896) proposed that phenotypic plasticity might be regarded as \a new factor in evolution" [1]. Phenotypic plasticity allowing adaptation, would smooth the fitness landscape increasing the efficiency of the evolutionary process [2, 3]. However, phenotypic plasticity has inherent costs associated with the training phase in terms of energy, time and eventual mistakes. For these reasons, in a second phase, evolution may find a way to achieve the same successful behaviors without plasticity. Thus the Baldwin effect has two phases.
    [Show full text]
  • Evolution—The Extended Synthesis
    EVOLUTION—THE EXTENDED SYNTHESIS edited by Massimo Pigliucci and Gerd B. Müller The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England © 2010 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. MIT Press books may be purchased at special quantity discounts for business or sales promotional use. For information, please email [email protected] or write to Special Sales Department, The MIT Press, 55 Hayward Street, Cambridge, MA 02142. This book was set in Times Roman by Toppan Best-set Premedia Limited. Printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Evolution—the extended synthesis / edited by Massimo Pigliucci and Gerd B. Müller. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-262-51367-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Evolution (Biology) 2. Evolutionary genetics. 3. Developmental biology. I. Pigliucci, Massimo, 1964– II. Müller, Gerd B. QH366.2.E8627 2010 576.8—dc22 2009024587 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Index Abir-Am, Pnina, 445 Average effects, 87 Abstract gene model, 102 Avital, E., 165 Accommodation, 298, 324, 366. See also Phenotypic and genetic Badyaev, A. V., 365 accommodation Baldwin effect, 219, 257–258, 366, 367, Activator-inhibitor systems, 290 371 Adams, Paul, 220 Baldwin, James Marc, 219, 366, 367, 371 Adaptation, 163–164, 425–427 Bat wings, 268 Adaptation and Natural Selection Beaks, fi nch, 271 (Williams), 84, 88 Behavioral inheritance, 187 Adaptive cell behaviors, 268 Benkemoun, L., 153–154 Adaptive landscapes/adaptive Biodiversity, areas for future research on topographies.
    [Show full text]
  • Myths and Legends of the Baldwin Effect
    Myths and Legends of the Baldwin Effect Peter Turney Institute for Information Technology National Research Council Canada Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1A 0R6 [email protected] Abstract ary computation when there is an evolving population of learning individuals (Ackley and Littman, 1991; Belew, This position paper argues that the Baldwin effect 1989; Belew et al., 1991; French and Messinger, 1994; is widely misunderstood by the evolutionary Hart, 1994; Hart and Belew, 1996; Hightower et al., 1996; computation community. The misunderstandings Whitley and Gruau, 1993; Whitley et al., 1994). This syn- appear to fall into two general categories. Firstly, ergetic effect is usually called the Baldwin effect. This has it is commonly believed that the Baldwin effect is produced the misleading impression that there is nothing concerned with the synergy that results when more to the Baldwin effect than synergy. A myth or legend there is an evolving population of learning indi- has arisen that the Baldwin effect is simply a special viduals. This is only half of the story. The full instance of synergy. One of the goals of this paper is to story is more complicated and more interesting. dispel this myth. The Baldwin effect is concerned with the costs Roughly speaking (we will be more precise later), the and benefits of lifetime learning by individuals in Baldwin effect has two aspects. First, lifetime learning in an evolving population. Several researchers have individuals can, in some situations, accelerate evolution. focussed exclusively on the benefits, but there is Second, learning is expensive. Therefore, in relatively sta- much to be gained from attention to the costs.
    [Show full text]
  • Why Developmental Niche Construction Is Not Selective Niche Construction: and Why Rsfs.Royalsocietypublishing.Org It Matters Karola Stotz
    Downloaded from http://rsfs.royalsocietypublishing.org/ on September 1, 2017 Why developmental niche construction is not selective niche construction: and why rsfs.royalsocietypublishing.org it matters Karola Stotz Department of Philosophy, Macquarie University, New South Wales 2109, Australia Research KS, 0000-0001-5300-0934 Cite this article: Stotz K. 2017 Why In the last decade, niche construction has been heralded as the neglected developmental niche construction is not process in evolution. But niche construction is just one way in which the organ- ism’s interaction with and construction of the environment can have potential selective niche construction: and why it evolutionary significance. The constructed environment does not just select for, matters. Interface Focus 7: 20160157. it also produces new variation. Nearly 3 decades ago, and in parallel with http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsfs.2016.0157 Odling-Smee’s article ‘Niche-constructing phenotypes’, West and King introduced the ‘ontogenetic niche’ to give the phenomena of exogenetic inheri- One contribution of 20 to a theme issue ‘New tance a formal name. Since then, a range of fields in the life sciences and medicine has amassed evidence that parents influence their offspring trends in evolutionary biology: biological, by means other than DNA (parental effects), and proposed mechanisms philosophical and social science perspectives’. for how heritable variation can be environmentally induced and developmen- tally regulated. The concept of ‘developmental niche construction’ (DNC) Subject Areas: elucidates how a diverse range of mechanisms contributes to the transgenera- systems biology tional transfer of developmental resources. My most central of claims is that whereas the selective niche of niche construction theory is primarily used to explain the active role of the organism in its selective environment, DNC is Keywords: meant to indicate the active role of the organism in its developmental environ- developmental niche construction, ment.
    [Show full text]
  • What the Baldwin Effect Affects Depends on the Nature of Plasticity T ⁎ Thomas J.H
    Cognition 197 (2020) 104165 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Cognition journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/cognit What the Baldwin Effect affects depends on the nature of plasticity T ⁎ Thomas J.H. Morgana,b,c, , Jordan W. Suchowc, Thomas L. Griffithsc a Arizona State University, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, 900 S. Cady Mall, Tempe 85287, United States of America b Arizona State University, Institute of Human Origins, 951 S. Cady Mall, Tempe 85287, United States of America c University of California, Berkeley, Department of Psychology, Tolman Hall, Berkeley 94720, United States of America ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Keywords: In a process known as the Baldwin Effect, developmental plasticity, such as learning, has been argued toac- Baldwin effect celerate the biological evolution of high-fitness traits, including language and complex intelligence. Herewe Learning investigate the evolutionary consequences of developmental plasticity by asking which aspects of a plastic trait Plasticity are the focus of genetic change. The aspects we consider are: (i) dependencies between elements of a trait, (ii) the Evolution importance of each element to fitness, and (iii) the difficulty of acquiring each element through plasticity. We also explore (iv) how cultural inheritance changes the relationship between plasticity and genetic change. We find that evolution by natural selection preferentially fixes elements that are depended upon byothers,im- portant to fitness, or difficult to acquire through plasticity, but that cultural inheritance can suppress andeven reverse genetic change. We replicate some of these effects in experimental evolutionary simulations with human learners. We conclude that what the Baldwin Effect affects depends upon the mechanism of plasticity, whichfor behavior and cognition includes the psychology of learning.
    [Show full text]
  • Social Learning and the Baldwin Effect David Papineau 1
    Social Learning and the Baldwin Effect David Papineau 1 Introduction The Baldwin effect occurs, if it ever does, when a biological trait becomes innate as a result of first being learned. Suppose that some trait is initially absent from a population of organisms. Then a number of organisms succeed in learning the trait. There will be a Baldwin effect if this period of learning leads to the trait becoming innate throughout the population. Put like that, it sounds like Lamarckism. But that is not the idea. When James Mark Baldwin and others first posited the Baldwin effect over a hundred years ago, their concern was precisely to uncover a respectable Darwinian mechanism for the Baldwin effect 1[1]. The great German cytologist Augustus Weismann had already persuaded them that there is no automatic genetic inheritance of acquired characteristics: the ontogenetic acquisition of a phenotypic trait cannot in itself alter the genetic material of the lineage that has acquired it. The thought behind the Baldwin effect is in effect that an alternative Darwinian mechanism might nevertheless mimic Lamarckism, in allowing learning to influence genetic evolution, but without requiring Lamarck’s own discredited hypothesis that learning directly affects the genome. Why should we be interested in the possibility of Baldwin effects? One reason the topic attracts attention is no doubt that it seems to soften the blind randomness of natural selection, by allowing the creative powers of mind to make a difference. Still, there are other good reasons for being interested in the Baldwin effect, apart from wanting some higher power to direct the course of evolution.
    [Show full text]
  • Baldwin Effect, and the Speeding up of Evolution: the Computational Roots of an Illusion
    Phenotypic Plasticity, the Baldwin Effect, and the Speeding up of Evolution: the Computational Roots of an Illusion Mauro Santos1,* , Eörs Szathmáry 2,3,4,† , and José F. Fontanari 5,‡ 1. Departament de Genètica i de Microbiologia; Grup de Genòmica, Bioinformàtica i Biologia Evolutiva (GGBE); Universitat Autonòma de Barcelona; 08193 Bellaterra (Barcelona); Spain 2. Parmenides Center for the Conceptual Foundations of Science, Kirchplatz 1 Pullach, D- 82049, Munich, Germany 3. Biological Insititute and Research Group in Evolutionary Ecology and Theoretical Biology, Eötvös University, Budapest, Hungary 4. Faculty of Biology, Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, Munich, Germany 5. Instituto de Física de São Carlos, Universidade de São Paulo, Caixa Postal 369, 13560- 970 São Carlos SP, Brazil Corresponding author; e-mail: [email protected] † E-mail: [email protected] ‡ E-mail: [email protected] Abstract An increasing number of dissident voices claim that the standard neo-Darwinian view of genes as ‘leaders’ and phenotypes as ‘followers’ during the process of adaptive evolution should be turned on its head. This idea is older than the rediscovery of Mendel’s laws of inheritance and has been given several names before its final ‘Baldwin effect’ label. A condition for this effect is that environmentally induced variation such as phenotypic plasticity or learning is crucial for the initial establishment of a population. This gives the necessary time for natural selection to act on genetic variation and the adaptive trait can be eventually encoded in the genotype. An influential paper published in the late 1980s showed the Baldwin effect to happen in computer simulations, and claimed that it was crucial to 1 solve a difficult adaptive task.
    [Show full text]
  • What the Baldwin Effect Affects Thomas J
    What the Baldwin Effect affects Thomas J. H. Morgan ([email protected]) Thomas L. Griffiths (tom griffi[email protected]) Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 USA Abstract the Baldwin Effect, what aspects of language should we ex- pect to see under relatively strong genetic influence? We ad- The Baldwin Effect is a proposed mechanism by which plas- ticity facilitates adaptive phenotypic and genetic evolution. In dress this question by using evolutionary simulations to ex- particular it has been proposed to be involved in the evolu- plore three factors that affect the extent to which selection tion of language. Here we investigate three factors affecting reduces the plasticity of traits in a stationary environment. the extent to which plastic traits are fixed by selection: (i) the difficulty with which traits can be acquired through plasticity, The factors we consider are: (i) the ease with which traits can (ii) the importance of traits to fitness, and (iii) the nature of be acquired through plasticity, (ii) the fitness contributions dependencies between different traits. We find that selection of traits, and (iii) dependencies concerning the acquisition of preferentially fixes traits that are difficult to acquire through plasticity, traits that have larger fitness benefits, and traits that plastic traits. We find that selection preferentially fixes traits affect the acquisition of, or benefits from, other traits. We con- that are hard to acquire through plasticity, traits that are are clude by discussing the implications of these findings for the important to fitness, and traits upon which the acquisition of evolution of language as well as non-human behaviors and re- consider the evolutionary significance of the Baldwin Effect.
    [Show full text]
  • Information Theory, Developmental Psychology, and the Baldwin Effect
    University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Faculty Publications and Other Works -- Mathematics Mathematics 9-4-2018 Information Theory, Developmental Psychology, and the Baldwin Effect Erick Chastain University of Tennessee, Knoxville Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_mathpubs Recommended Citation Chastain EJ (2018) Information Theory, Developmental Psychology, and the Baldwin Effect. Front. Neurorobot. 12:52. doi: 10.3389/fnbot.2018.00052 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Mathematics at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications and Other Works -- Mathematics by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ORIGINAL RESEARCH published: 04 September 2018 doi: 10.3389/fnbot.2018.00052 Information Theory, Developmental Psychology, and the Baldwin Effect Erick J. Chastain* Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee Knoxville, Knoxville, TN, United States As part of the extended evolutionary synthesis, there has recently been a new emphasis on the effects of biological development on genetic inheritance and variation. The exciting new directions taken by those in the community have by a pre-history filled with related ideas that were never given a rigorous foundation or combined coherently. Part of the historical background of the extended synthesis is the work of James Mark Baldwin on his so-called “Baldwin Effect.” Many variant re-interpretations of his work obscure the original meaning of the Baldwin Effect. This paper emphasizes a new approach to the Baldwin Effect, focusing on his work in developmental psychology and how that would impact evolution.
    [Show full text]
  • Review of Evolution and Learning: the Baldwin Effect Reconsidered
    Eastern Illinois University The Keep Faculty Research and Creative Activity Psychology January 2006 Mind, Development, and Evolution. (Review of Evolution and Learning: The aldB win Effect Reconsidered) Steven J. Scher Eastern Illinois University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://thekeep.eiu.edu/psych_fac Part of the Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Scher, Steven J., "Mind, Development, and Evolution. (Review of Evolution and Learning: The aldwB in Effect Reconsidered)" (2006). Faculty Research and Creative Activity. 35. http://thekeep.eiu.edu/psych_fac/35 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Psychology at The Keep. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Research and Creative Activity by an authorized administrator of The Keep. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Mind, Development, and Evolution Evolution and Learning: The Baldwin Effect Reconsidered Edited by Bruce H. Weber and DavidJ. Depew. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003. 341 pp. Cloth, $50.00. The Baldwin effect was not called the Baldwin effect until it was almost 60 years old. In 1953, George Gaylord Simpson published an article in the journal Evolution using that phrase as a title, and thus the effect (or, as Simpson declares, the "factor, principle, or hypothesis, as you will," Simpson, 1996, p. 100) acquired a name.1 The original proposal of this effect was made nearly simultaneously by J. Mark Baldwin, C. Lloyd Morgan, and H. F. Osborn in separate articles published in 1896. And just what, many readers may ask, is the Baldwin effect? Here we get to the problem. "The general thrust of the idea," says Depew in his introductory chapter, "is to urge that, under some conditions, learned behaviors can affect the direction and rate of evolutionary change by natural selection" (p.
    [Show full text]
  • VASILE GEORGESCU Designing and Tuning Adaptive Systems
    Economic Computation and Economic Cybernetics Studies and Research, Issue 1/2018; Vol. 52 _____________________________________________________________ Professor Vasile GEORGESCU, PhD University of Craiova E-mail: [email protected] DESIGNING AND TUNING ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS THROUGH EVOLUTION, LEARNING AND MEME TRANSMISSION: BIOLOGICAL AND COMPUTATIONAL PARADIGMS Abstract. With the contemporary advances in Computational Intelligence (CI), a formidable gain in diversity and effectiveness becomes more obvious. However, this machinery that has been successfully engaged in a huge transitive work seems to apparently lose the natural inclination towards reflexivity and introspection and thus appears to miss the big picture. Although biological evolution paradigms were fruitfully inspirational for artificial evolution theories and a massive part of CI appears to have bio- mimetic roots, it is no less true that biologists and computer scientists produce two parallel series of research and literature. The aim of this paper is to provide more insight into how computational paradigms drawn their inspiration from evolutionary biology. Intelligent adaptive systems, as artifacts designed by humans, can be largely seen as an effort of mimicking intelligent biological behaviors that were shaped, developed, adapted and tuned by natural evolution, learning mechanisms or enculturation. The latter concept is supported by the new field of memetics that promotes an evolutionary vision of culture, studying the replication, spread and evolution of memes, as cultural replicators. The main focus is on describing these mechanisms and the ways of applying them to designing and tuning intelligent adaptive systems. The approach based on memetic algorithms is finally benchmarked against a similar approach based on genetic algorithms, for tasks in machine learning such as evolving type-2 fuzzy inference systems.
    [Show full text]
  • The Ecological Dimension of Natural Selection
    The Ecological Dimension of Natural Selection Abstract: In this paper I argue that we should pay extra attention to the ecological dimension of natural selection. By this I mean that we should view natural selection primarily as acting on the outcomes of the interactions organisms have with their environment which influences their relative reproductive output. A consequence of this view is that natural selection is not (directly) sensitive to what system of inheritance which ensures reoccurrences of organism- environment interactions over generations. I end by showing the consequences of this view when looking at how processes like niche construction and the Baldwin effect relate to natural selection. 1 1. Introduction. The principle of natural selection is the theoretical cornerstone of evolutionary theory. In the philosophy of biology, we can delineate four different, but related, main discussions of this principle; first, on what the sufficient conditions are for its occurrence (e.g., Lewontin 1970; Godfrey-Smith 2009). Second, on the appropriate means of quantifying the influence of natural selection on the distribution of variants in populations over time (e.g., Millstein 2009; Otsuka 2016). Third, on whether selection can be counted as a cause or is more appropriately interpreted as a statistical summary of multiple underlying causes and not a cause of evolution in itself (e.g., Matthen and Ariew 2002; Ramsey 2013ab; Walsh 2010). Fourth, on whether selection can act on multiple levels and what the relevant units of selection are, and if any of these are privileged (e.g., Williams 1966; Dawkins 1976; Okasha 2006). Another debate, which is related to all of the aforementioned debates, centers around the metaphysics of evolution.
    [Show full text]