Wirt,
Wow - great comprehensive email on evolution. I learned a lot
from it - thanks.
I am not an expert on evolution (far from it) but I have a
hunch that relates to Hutchinson's quote and analogy about
"the evolutionary play in the ecological theater". There is
a book review that cites this as well as work by Keith Bennett
below.
My hunch combined with your analogy below of "evolution as
algorithm" might be considered "ecology as operating system".
This focuses on ecology at the ecosystem and biosphere level.
Your description of the algorithm seems to explain and
characterize selection well, but it does not seem to account
for 1) generation of novelty, other than via random or
error-related mutation, 2) feedbacks that result when the
organisms and communities/ecosystems alter the environment
and then have to adapt to their own alterations (as studied
in "niche construction" and "ecosystem engineers") and
3) the infrastructure and maintenance of elements, energy,
materials that make the instantiation or materialization of
new forms ("actors") possible, participates in juxtaposing
them in new "plays" and "cleans up the mess" after the "play"
(i.e. decomposition and recycling) so that the "theater" is
not cluttered from past performances. I could convert these
to algorithm or application/program vs operating system
examples relation to hardware realizations, memory and/or
disk space/clutter.
Algorithms are great, but for them to work one needs an
operating system that can continue to "run" and allow many
"programs" to "run" and that is robust and does not itself
"crash". There is also work by folks following up on Robert
Rosen that suggests that much of the essence of life process
is non-computable, not algorithmic and non-mechanistic. Some
of the work here focuses on ambiguity and circularity, both
of which algorithms do not handle well but life seems
accustomed to.
I think if we could integrate the generative and selective
capacities of both ecology and evolution then we'd have a
better understanding of life. I have a hunch we'll need
some metaphors other than algorithm/computer to do this.
Maybe "theater and play" would work, again?
Dan Fiscus
Book review of Ecology and Evolution: The Pace of Life.
K. D. Bennett. 241 pp. Cambridge University Press, 1997.
http://www.americanscientist.org/template/BookReviewTypeDetail/assetid/28650;jsessionid=baa4WsGt9bLbX1
I assume this is free content and will work...I hope so...
Wirt Atmar wrote:
> Jim writes:
>
>
>>But Wirt,
>>
>> Natural selection doesn't "cull" but rather it "favors." And selecting
>> "for" something is very different than selecting "against" something.
>> Favoring a trait leads to adaptation. That is, those with a trait leave
>> more descendents. Even so, it is not that simple. At any rate, John
>> Endler does a wonderful job of clearing things up with "Natural
>> Selection in the Wild" and I highly recommend it for anyone who has not
>> read it, and, don't forget, "The Extended Phenotype" by Dawkins, that
>> should also be required reading.
>
>
> Let me try one more time, if you don't mind. To do that, let me begin at the
> beginning and write evolution as an algorithm. Given self-reproduction,
> Darwinian evolution is composed of only these five components:
>
> o a bounded arena
> o a replicating population which must eventually expand beyond the
> bounds of the arena
> o thermodynamically inescapable replicative error, guaranteeing
> variation within the reproducing population
> o competition for space in that arena among the inevitable variants
> o the consequential competitive exclusion of the lesser fit
>
snip
--
Dan Fiscus
Ecologist/PhD student
Appalachian Laboratory
University of Maryland C.E.S.
301 Braddock Road
Frostburg, MD 21532 USA
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
phone: 301-689-7121
fax: 301-689-7200
http://al.umces.edu/~fiscus/research
http://ecosystemics.org/drupal
