Digital evolution... Really?
Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2012 4:58 am
I just started into this one last night, but words fail me as to why this experiment should be remotely compelling. Is this what passes for evidence these days? The study is headed by Richard Lenski, and purports to demonstrate the evolution of complex features using digital code. Here's the abstract:
A long-standing challenge to evolutionary theory has been whether it can explain the origin of complex organismal features. We
examined this issue using digital organisms—computer programs that self-replicate, mutate, compete and evolve. Populations of
digital organisms often evolved the ability to perform complex logic functions requiring the coordinated execution of many
genomic instructions. Complex functions evolved by building on simpler functions that had evolved earlier, provided that these
were also selectively favoured. However, no particular intermediate stage was essential for evolving complex functions. The first
genotypes able to perform complex functions differed from their non-performing parents by only one or two mutations, but differed
from the ancestor by many mutations that were also crucial to the new functions. In some cases, mutations that were deleterious
when they appeared served as stepping-stones in the evolution of complex features. These findings show how complex functions
can originate by random mutation and natural selection.
Here is the link:
http://myxo.css.msu.edu/papers/nature20 ... omplex.pdf
More to come.
- Nathan
A long-standing challenge to evolutionary theory has been whether it can explain the origin of complex organismal features. We
examined this issue using digital organisms—computer programs that self-replicate, mutate, compete and evolve. Populations of
digital organisms often evolved the ability to perform complex logic functions requiring the coordinated execution of many
genomic instructions. Complex functions evolved by building on simpler functions that had evolved earlier, provided that these
were also selectively favoured. However, no particular intermediate stage was essential for evolving complex functions. The first
genotypes able to perform complex functions differed from their non-performing parents by only one or two mutations, but differed
from the ancestor by many mutations that were also crucial to the new functions. In some cases, mutations that were deleterious
when they appeared served as stepping-stones in the evolution of complex features. These findings show how complex functions
can originate by random mutation and natural selection.
Here is the link:
http://myxo.css.msu.edu/papers/nature20 ... omplex.pdf
More to come.
- Nathan
