Cogprints
Login | Create Account

Increasing Evolvability Considered as a Large-Scale Trend in Evolution

Turney, Peter (1999) Increasing Evolvability Considered as a Large-Scale Trend in Evolution. [Conference Paper]

Full text available as:

[img]
Preview
PDF - Requires a PDF viewer such as GSview, Xpdf or Adobe Acrobat Reader
45Kb

Abstract

Evolvability is the capacity to evolve. This paper introduces a simple computational model of evolvability and demonstrates that, under certain conditions, evolvability can increase indefinitely, even when there is no direct selection for evolvability. The model shows that increasing evolvability implies an accelerating evolutionary pace. It is suggested that the conditions for indefinitely increasing evolvability are satisfied in biological and cultural evolution. We claim that increasing evolvability is a large-scale trend in evolution. This hypothesis leads to testable predictions about biological and cultural evolution.

Item Type:Conference Paper
Keywords:evolutionary trends, evolutionary progress, large-scale trends, evolvability, Baldwin effect
Subjects:Biology > Evolution
Biology > Theoretical Biology
ID Code:2499
Deposited By:Turney, Peter
Deposited On:09 Oct 2002
Last Modified:12 Sep 2007 17:45

References in Article

Select the SEEK icon to attempt to find the referenced article. If it does not appear to be in cogprints you will be forwarded to the paracite service. Poorly formated references will probably not work.

Altenberg, L. (1994). The evolution of evolvability in

genetic programming. In: Advances in Genetic Programming,

K. E. Kinnear Jr., (ed.). MIT Press.

Anderson, R.W. (1995). Learning and evolution: A quantitative

genetics approach. Journal of Theoretical Biology,

175, 89-101.

Ayala F.J. (1974). The concept of biological progress. In

Studies in the Philosophy of Biology, ed. F.J. Ayala, T.

Dobzhansky,19:339-55. New York: Macmillan.

Ayala F.J. (1988). Can "progress" be defined as a biological

concept? In Evolutionary Progress, ed. M Nitecki, pp.

75-96. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Bedau, M.A. and Seymour, R. (1995). Adaptation of mutation

rates in a simple model of evolution. Complexity International,

2. [http://www.csu.edu.au/ci/vol2/mab2nd/mab2nd.html]

Dawkins, R. (1989). The evolution of evolvability. In: Artificial

Life, C. Langton, (ed.). Addison-Wesley.

Dawkins, R. (1996). Climbing Mount Improbable. New

York: W.W. Norton and Co.

Gould S.J. (1988). Trends as changes in variance: A new

slant on progress and directionality in evolution. Journal of

Paleontology, 62, 319-29.

Gould S.J. (1997). Full House: The Spread of Excellence

from Plato to Darwin. New York: Harmony.

Hinton, G.E., and Nowlan, S.J. (1987). How learning can

guide evolution. Complex Systems, 1, 495-502.

Kurzweil, R. (1999). The Age of Spiritual Machines: When

Computers Exceed Human Intelligence. Viking Press.

McShea, D.W. (1998). Possible largest-scale trends in

organismal evolution: Eight "Live Hypotheses". Annual

Review of Ecology and Systematics, 29, 293-318.

[http://biomedical.AnnualReviews.org/cgi/content/abstract/4/29/293]

Simon, H.A. (1962). The architecture of complexity. Proceedings

of the American Philosophical Society, 106, 467-482.

Turney, P.D. (1989). The architecture of complexity: A

new blueprint. Synthese, 79, 515-542.

Turney, P.D. (1996). How to shift bias: Lessons from the

Baldwin effect. Evolutionary Computation, 4, 271-295.

Wagner, G.P. and Altenberg, L. (1996). Complex adaptations

and the evolution of evolvability. Evolution, 50, 967-

976. [http://pueo.mhpcc.edu/~altenber/PAPERS/CAEE/]

Whitley, D. (1989). The GENITOR algorithm and selective

pressure. Proceedings of the Third International Conference

on Genetic Algorithms (ICGA-89), pp. 116-121.

California: Morgan Kaufmann.

Metadata

Repository Staff Only: item control page

Cogprints is powered by EPrints 3 which is developed by the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton. More information and software credits.