The Surprising Creativity of Digital Evolution
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The Evolution of Imitation Without Cultural Transmission
The Evolution of Imitation Without Cultural Transmission Lee Altenberg∗1, Susanne Still1, and Christopher J. Watkins2 1University of Hawai`i at M¯anoa 2Royal Holloway University of London July 22, 2021 Abstract The evolution and function of imitation in animal learning has always been associated with its crucial role in cultural transmission and cultural evolution. Can imitation evolve in the absence of cultural transmission? We investigate a model in which imitation is unbundled from cultural transmission: an organism's adult phenotype is plastically altered by its juvenile experiences of genetically determined juvenile traits within its co- hort, and the only information transmitted between generations is genetic. Transmission of phenotypic information between generations is precluded by the population being semelparous with discrete, non-overlapping gen- erations. We find that during a period of directional selection towards a phenotypic optimum, natural selection favors modifiers which cause an organism to bias its plastic phenotype in the direction opposite to the mean phenotype of the population. As the population approaches the phenotypic optimum and shifts into stabilizing selection, selection on the modifier reverses and favors strong imitation of the population mean. Imitation can become so strong that it results in \genotype-phenotype disengagement" (Gonzalez et al., 2017) or even \hyper-imitation"|where the adult phenotype overshoots the mean phenotype. Hyper-imitation produces an evolutionary pathology, where the phenotype is driven away from the optimum, resulting in a drop in mean fitness, and the collapse of imitation. Repeated cycles of hyper-imitation and its collapse are observed. Genetic constraints on hyper-imitation will prevent these cycles. -
The Evolution of Dispersal in Random Environments and the Principle of Partial Control
The Evolution of Dispersal in Random Environments and The Principle of Partial Control Lee Altenberg [email protected] Abstract If a genotype is distributed in space and its fitness varies with location, then selection will McNamara and Dall (2011) identified novel relationships change the spatial distribution of the genotype between the abundance of a species in different environ- through its effect on population demography. ments, the temporal properties of environmental change, This process can accumulate genotype members and selection for or against dispersal. Here, the mathemat- in locations to which they are well suited. This ics underlying these relationships in their two-environment accumulation by selection is the multiplier effect. model are investigated for arbitrary numbers of environ- ments. The effect they described is quantified as the It is possible, they discover, for the `multiplier effect’ to fitness-abundance covariance. The phase in the life cycle reverse | for there to be an excess of the population in where the population is censused is crucial for the impli- the worst habitats | when there is very rapid environ- cations of the fitness-abundance covariance. These rela- mental change. The environmental change they model tionships are shown to connect to the population genetics is a Markov process where are large number of patches literature on the Reduction Principle for the evolution of switch independently between two environments that pro- genetic systems and migration. Conditions that produce duce different growth rates for a population of organ- selection for increased unconditional dispersal are found to isms. They find that for moderate rates of environmental be new instances of departures from reduction described change, populations will have higher asymptotic growth by the \Principle of Partial Control" proposed for the evo- rates if they reduce their rate of unconditional disper- lution of modifier genes. -
Implications of the Reduction Principle for Cosmological Natural Selection
Implications of the Reduction Principle for Cosmological Natural Selection Lee Altenberg Associate Editor of BioSystems; Ronin Institute; [email protected] Smolin (1992) proposed that the fine-tuning problem for parameters of the Standard Model might be accounted for by a Darwinian process of universe reproduction — Cosmological Natural Selection (CNS) — in which black holes give rise to offspring universes with slightly altered parameters. The laws for variation and inheritance of the parameters are also subject to CNS if variation in transmission laws occurs. This is the strategy introduced by Nei (1967) to understand genetic transmission, through the evolutionary theory of modifier genes, whose methodology is adopted here. When mechanisms of variation themselves vary, they are subject to Feldman’s (1972) evolutionary Reduction Principle that selection favors greater faithfulness of replication. A theorem of Karlin (1982) allows one to generalize this principle beyond biological genetics to the unknown inheritance laws that would operate in CNS. The reduction principle for CNS is illustrated with a general multitype branching process model of universe creation containing competing inheritance laws. The most faithful inheritance law dominates the ensemble of universes. The Reduction Principle thus provides a mechanism to account for high fidelity of inheritance between universes. Moreover, it reveals that natural selection in the presence of variation in inheritance mechanisms has two distinct objects: maximization of both fitness and faithful inheritance. Tradeoffs between fitness and faithfulness open the possibility that evolved fundamental parameters are compromises, and not local optima to maximize universe production, in which case their local non-optimality may point to their involvement in the universe inheritance mechanisms. -
Evolvability Suppression to Stabilize Far-Sighted Adaptations
Evolvability Suppression to Stabilize Lee Altenberg Information and Computer Sciences Far-Sighted Adaptations University of Hawai’i at Manoa Honolulu, HI [email protected] Abstract The opportunistic character of adaptation through natural Keywords selection can lead to evolutionary pathologies—situations in which traits Evolvability, metapopulation, hierarchies, evolve that promote the extinction of the population. Such cheats, far-sighted pathologies include imprudent predation and other forms of habitat overexploitation, or the tragedy of the commons, adaptation to temporally unreliable resources, cheating and other antisocial behavior, infectious pathogen carrier states, parthenogenesis, and cancer, an intraorganismal evolutionary pathology. It is known that hierarchical population dynamics can protect a population from invasion by pathological genes. Can it also alter the genotype so as to prevent the generation of such genes in the first place, that is, suppress the evolvability of evolutionary pathologies? A model is constructed in which one locus controls the expression of the pathological trait, and a series of modifier loci exist that can prevent the expression of this trait. It is found that multiple evolvability checkpoint genes can evolve to prevent the generation of variants that cause evolutionary pathologies. The consequences of this finding are discussed. 1 Introduction Adaptation through natural selection is an opportunistic process, in that it is driven by the selective forces of the immediate moment upon the individual organism. Yet traits that provide immediate advantage to the individual may be detrimental to the population or species, or detrimental over longer time scales. This has been understood since Darwin. Conversely, traits may impose an immediate disadvantage to the individual, yet be advantageous to the population or species, or advantageous over longer time scales. -
G. P. Wagner and L. Altenberg, Complex Adaptations and The
Perspective: Complex Adaptations and the Evolution of Evolvability Gunter P. Wagner; Lee Altenberg Evolution, Vol. 50, No. 3. (Jun., 1996), pp. 967-976. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0014-3820%28199606%2950%3A3%3C967%3APCAATE%3E2.0.CO%3B2-T Evolution is currently published by Society for the Study of Evolution. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/about/terms.html. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/journals/ssevol.html. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. The JSTOR Archive is a trusted digital repository providing for long-term preservation and access to leading academic journals and scholarly literature from around the world. The Archive is supported by libraries, scholarly societies, publishers, and foundations. It is an initiative of JSTOR, a not-for-profit organization with a mission to help the scholarly community take advantage of advances in technology. For more information regarding JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. http://www.jstor.org Mon Mar 17 12:37:59 2008 EVOLUTION INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF EVOLUTION Vol. -
Michael Behe Makes the Argument That
Opening the Black Box Throughout “Darwin’s Black Box”, Michael Behe makes the argument that Darwinian evolution can’t be used as a universal explanation for all of life, because it can’t account for irreducibly complex organisms. However, Behe also neglects to acknowledge any existing research that suggests otherwise. A study conducted at Michigan State University by scientist Richard Lenski has shown that there could be a scientific explanation for these seemingly irreducibly complex organism, and that Behe shouldn’t be so quick to point to a supernatural solution, or to call it quits so soon when his mousetrap breaks. While Behe may think he has all the answers, contrary research has shown there are other answers worth consideration. Behe begins his argument by introducing the idea of organisms that are irreducibly complex, otherwise defined as a “single system composed of several well-matched, interacting parts that contribute to the basic function of the system, wherein the removal of any one of the parts causes the system to effectively cease functioning” (Darwin’s Black Box, 39). In order to demonstrate this principle, Behe raises the example of a mousetrap. He argues that if you remove one part of a mousetrap, it will cease to function, and because of this, all of the parts must have evolved simultaneously in order for a mousetrap to exist, therefor rendering it irreducibly complex. However, is any of this really true? Besides the holes in Behe’s mousetrap argument, there also lies the fact that mousetraps are not living creatures and therefore are incapable of evolution. -
Chapter 6.Qxp
Testing Darwin Digital organisms that breed thousands of times faster than common bacteria are beginning to shed light on some of the biggest unanswered questions of evolution BY CARL ZIMMER F YOU WANT TO FIND ALIEN LIFE-FORMS, does this. Metabolism? Maybe not quite yet, but Ihold off on booking that trip to the moons of getting pretty close.” Saturn. You may only need to catch a plane to East Lansing, Michigan. One thing the digital organisms do particularly well is evolve. “Avida is not a simulation of evolu- The aliens of East Lansing are not made of car- tion; it is an instance of it,” Pennock says. “All the bon and water. They have no DNA. Billions of them core parts of the Darwinian process are there. These are quietly colonizing a cluster of 200 computers in things replicate, they mutate, they are competing the basement of the Plant and Soil Sciences building with one another. The very process of natural selec- at Michigan State University. To peer into their tion is happening there. If that’s central to the defi- world, however, you have to walk a few blocks west nition of life, then these things count.” on Wilson Road to the engineering department and visit the Digital Evolution Laboratory. Here you’ll It may seem strange to talk about a chunk of find a crew of computer scientists, biologists, and computer code in the same way you talk about a even a philosopher or two gazing at computer mon- cherry tree or a dolphin. But the more biologists itors, watching the evolution of bizarre new life- think about life, the more compelling the equation forms. -
Editorial Commentaries on a Selection of Marc Feldman’S TPB Papers Lee Altenberg A, Nicole Creanza B, Laurel Fogarty C, Lilach Hadany D, Oren Kolodny E, Kevin ∗ N
Theoretical Population Biology 129 (2019) 4–8 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Theoretical Population Biology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tpb Commentary Some topics in theoretical population genetics: Editorial commentaries on a selection of Marc Feldman's TPB papers Lee Altenberg a, Nicole Creanza b, Laurel Fogarty c, Lilach Hadany d, Oren Kolodny e, Kevin ∗ N. Laland f, Laurent Lehmann g, Sarah P. Otto h, Noah A. Rosenberg e, , Jeremy Van Cleve i, John Wakeley j a Information and Computer Sciences, University of Hawai`i at Manoa,¯ Honolulu, HI 96822, USA b Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37232, USA c The UCL Centre for Computation, Mathematics and Physics in the Life Sciences and Experimental Biology, University College London, London, WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom d Department of Molecular Biology & Ecology of Plants, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, 6997801, Israel e Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA f School of Biology, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Fife KY16 9TH, United Kingdom g Department of Ecology and Evolution, Université de Lausanne CH-1015, Switzerland h Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada i Department of Biology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA j Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA article info a b s t r a c t Article history: This article consists of commentaries on a selected group of papers of Marc Feldman published in Theoret- Received 22 February 2018 ical Population Biology from 1970 to the present. The papers describe a diverse set of population-genetic Available online 26 December 2018 models, covering topics such as cultural evolution, social evolution, and the evolution of recombination. -
Life's Conservation Law: Why Darwinian
William A. Dembski and Robert J. Marks II, "Life's Conservation Law: Why Darwinian Evolution Cannot Create Biological Information" in Bruce Gordon and William Dembski, editors, The Nature of Nature (Wilmington, Del.: ISI Books, 2011) pp.360-399 E F E IS an irn:volcaIJ!e selection and exclusion. as when you marry one woman you up all the so when you take one course of action you up all the other courses."4 Intelligence creates information. Bur is the causal power of Darwin's main claim to fame is that he is supposed to have a that could create informa- tion without the need intelligence. Interestingly, he to this mechanism as "natural selection." Sel.e~tion, as understood before had been an activity confined to intelligent agents. Darwll1 s great coup was to the power to nature-hence "natural selection." as conceived Darwin and his acts without is non-teleo- and therefore unintelligent. As genetlClst Coyne puts it in opposing intdlige:nt "If we're to defend we must defend it as a science: a in which the of life results from the action natural selection and on random mutations."5 But do and Darwinists insist that to count as must be non-teleological?6 did that rule come from? The of with the sciences is itselfa well-established science-it's called engineering. conceived, to the engi- ne.:::nng SCIences. 1. THE CREATION OF INFORMATION But to return to the at does nature really possess the power to select and th,>rph" create To answer this we to turn to relation between po~,sit)ilil:ies to create inlonnal:1011. -
Evolvability and Robustness in Artificial Evolving
Evolvability and Robustness in Artificial Evolving Systems: Three Perturbations ∗ June 2, 2014 Guest Editor: Lee Altenberg, Senior Fellow, The KLI, Klosterneuburg, Austria [email protected] This special issue focuses on two emergent properties of artificial evolutionary sys- tems: evolvability and robustness. The three papers presented here expand the subject in distinct directions—two dealing with robustness, and one with evolvability. Short- and long-term evolution depends on the variational properties of the sys- tems: how changes to their structure map to changes in their behavior. Robustness and evolvability are key variational properties that themselves show evolutionary dynam- ics. This journal’s focus is on artificial evolutionary systems that are active—which take inputs from their environment and act on them to produce their behavior. Active systems are an especially rich domain for the evolution of robustness and evolvability because the size and structure of their data objects are often open-ended. Evolvability and robustness were never part of the classical ‘Modern Synthesis’ which melded Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection with Mendel’s theory of heredity. The reason that evolvability was not an issue was because it was presumed at the outset: empirical experiences with quantitative genetics and selective breeding produced a consensus that phenotypic variation was effectively like a gas which could flow into any selective bottle; e.g. as Francisco Ayala wrote in 1978, “The fact that ar- tificial selection works almost every time it is attempted indicates there is genetic vari- ation in populations for virtually every characteristic of the organism” [3]. It was with the advent of evolutionary computation—the attempt to solve engineering problems by mimicking Darwinian evolution and Mendelian genetics—that it became widely clear that evolvability could not be taken for granted, but was in fact the primary design challenge for evolutionary algorithms. -
The Landscape of Innovation in Bacteria, Battleships, and Beyond Downloaded by Guest on October 1, 2021 Thus, Fig
SPECIAL FEATURE: PERSPECTIVE The landscape of innovation in bacteria, battleships, and beyond SPECIAL FEATURE: PERSPECTIVE Terence C. Burnhama,b,1 and Michael Travisanoc,d,1,2 Edited by Simon A. Levin, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, and approved November 18, 2020 (received for review August 12, 2020) We draw lessons from microbial experimental evolution and naval warfare to improve the understanding of innovation in financial markets. Major financial innovations often arise without explicit societal planning because novel approaches can be favored by markets, in a manner strikingly parallel to natural selection. We utilize the concept of an adaptive landscape to characterize environments that increase the speed and magnitude of innovation. We apply this adaptive landscape framework to innovation in portfolio management. We create a general taxonomy for understanding and nurturing innovation. adaptation | experimental evolution | finance | innovation What environmental characteristics favor innovation? relationship between design and performance. Con- We begin with an examination of innovation evident in sequently, both battleship and bacterial innovation naval warfare, primarily the design and function of can be represented in a similar adaptive landscape. battleships. Improvements in battleships suggest that We draw general lessons regarding approaches to fierce competition fosters innovation. innovation, aided by the adaptive landscape repre- While the battleship heuristic appears straightfor- sentation. The goal is to understand innovation in ward, the study of any historical set of innovations has finance and other domains. From this perspective, we the challenge of disentangling causation from corre- analyze one area of finance: the management of lation. Without a time machine, we cannot be sure of investment portfolios. -
Evolution in Changing Environments: Modifiers of Mutation, Recombination, and Migration
Evolution in changing environments: Modifiers of mutation, recombination, and migration Oana Carjaa,1, Uri Libermanb, and Marcus W. Feldmana,1 aDepartment of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-5020; and bSchool of Mathematical Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel Contributed by Marcus W. Feldman, September 13, 2014 (sent for review June 20, 2014; reviewed by Lee Altenberg and Lilach Hadany) The production and maintenance of genetic and phenotypic di- because, when the selective environment varies between positive versity under temporally fluctuating selection and the signatures and negative epistasis, the linkage disequilibrium is often of the of environmental changes in the patterns of this variation have opposite sign to the current epistasis. This lag between epistasis been important areas of focus in population genetics. On one hand, and linkage disequilibrium leads to a mismatch between hap- periods of constant selection pull the genetic makeup of popula- lotypes that are most fit and those that are more common, and tions toward local fitness optima. On the other, to cope with recombination should be favored because it breaks apart the cur- changes in the selection regime, populations may evolve mecha- rently maladapted allele combinations and combines alleles that nisms that create a diversity of genotypes. By tuning the rates at might constitute a fitter haplotype in the future (14, 17, 22, 23). which variability is produced—such as the rates of recombination, Environmental fluctuations can also affect the evolution of the mutation rate. In bacteria, stress can increase the mutation rate mutation, or migration—populations may increase their long-term by inducing mutagenic mechanisms such as the SOS transcrip- adaptability.