The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Is evolution by natural selection the algorithm of biological evolution?

Is evolution by natural selection the algorithm of biological evolution?
Is evolution by natural selection the algorithm of biological evolution?
It is tempting to be confident that we know how biological evolution works. After all, we know a mechanism capable of producing adaptation, and we understand the necessary and sufficient conditions for this to occur, and those conditions are met in natural populations – the rest is surely just details. However, there can be many different algorithms that utilise a given underlying mechanism (sub-algorithm), and in other contexts we cannot assert that we know what algorithm is operating just because we identify a sub-algorithm it contains. Using sorting algorithms based on the mechanism of ‘compare and swap’ (as an analogue of evolutionary algorithms based on natural selection) we discuss three substantial ways in which an algorithm can be based on, and depend on, a mechanism and yet not be that mechanism, each of which has some bearing on natural processes of evolution: 1) unstructured versus structured applications of a mechanism, 2) data-independent versus data-dependent, 3) iterative versus recursive. In the context of computational algorithms more generally, it is easy to see that each of these issues corresponds to different algorithmic classes. We suggest that in natural evolution, it is not obvious that none of these issues apply, nor that the empirical evidence supports the view that an unstructured, data-independent and iterative interpretation of natural selection is sufficient to create biological evolution.
0-262-31050-3
121-128
MIT Press
Watson, Richard
ce199dfc-d5d4-4edf-bd7b-f9e224c96c75
Adami, Christoph
Bryson, David M.
Ofria, Charles
Pennock, Robert T.
Watson, Richard
ce199dfc-d5d4-4edf-bd7b-f9e224c96c75
Adami, Christoph
Bryson, David M.
Ofria, Charles
Pennock, Robert T.

Watson, Richard (2012) Is evolution by natural selection the algorithm of biological evolution? Adami, Christoph, Bryson, David M., Ofria, Charles and Pennock, Robert T. (eds.) In Artificial Life XIII: Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems. MIT Press. pp. 121-128 . (doi:10.7551/978-0-262-31050-5-ch018).

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

It is tempting to be confident that we know how biological evolution works. After all, we know a mechanism capable of producing adaptation, and we understand the necessary and sufficient conditions for this to occur, and those conditions are met in natural populations – the rest is surely just details. However, there can be many different algorithms that utilise a given underlying mechanism (sub-algorithm), and in other contexts we cannot assert that we know what algorithm is operating just because we identify a sub-algorithm it contains. Using sorting algorithms based on the mechanism of ‘compare and swap’ (as an analogue of evolutionary algorithms based on natural selection) we discuss three substantial ways in which an algorithm can be based on, and depend on, a mechanism and yet not be that mechanism, each of which has some bearing on natural processes of evolution: 1) unstructured versus structured applications of a mechanism, 2) data-independent versus data-dependent, 3) iterative versus recursive. In the context of computational algorithms more generally, it is easy to see that each of these issues corresponds to different algorithmic classes. We suggest that in natural evolution, it is not obvious that none of these issues apply, nor that the empirical evidence supports the view that an unstructured, data-independent and iterative interpretation of natural selection is sufficient to create biological evolution.

Text
IsENStheAlgofBE.pdf - Version of Record
Download (1MB)

More information

Published date: 2012
Venue - Dates: Artificial Life XIII: 13th International Conference on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems, Michigan, United States, 2012-08-19 - 2012-08-22
Organisations: Agents, Interactions & Complexity, EEE

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 342172
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/342172
ISBN: 0-262-31050-3
PURE UUID: b9ce2362-73d8-4279-b52e-125803b505e5
ORCID for Richard Watson: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-2521-8255

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 14 Aug 2012 14:23
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:21

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: Richard Watson ORCID iD
Editor: Christoph Adami
Editor: David M. Bryson
Editor: Charles Ofria
Editor: Robert T. Pennock

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×