Phil, indulge a layman for a moment: isn't auto-catalysis widely considered to be the origination of life, and thus evolution?
David dba | David Breecker Associates, Inc. www.BreeckerAssociates.com Abiquiu: 505-685-4891 Santa Fe: 505-690-2335 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Phil Henshaw" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group'" <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, September 26, 2006 5:52 AM Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Rugged fitness landscapes > Well, it seems to open up to a wide variety of probably both feasible > and infeasible mechanisms. I think for small changes to have large > effects there needs to be developmental process, i.e. a form of feedback > of some sort. There are a *great* many possible means of establishing > process feedback. That that mechanism, having results stimulate causes, > has been ruled out of evolution theory for over a century seems to me to > indicate a lack of imagination. > > > Phil Henshaw ¸¸¸¸.·´ ¯ `·.¸¸¸¸ > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > 680 Ft. Washington Ave > NY NY 10040 > tel: 212-795-4844 > e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > explorations: www.synapse9.com > > >> -----Original Message----- >> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jochen Fromm >> Sent: Tuesday, September 26, 2006 6:59 AM >> To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' >> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Rugged fitness landscapes >> >> >> >> Yes, his work contains interesting ideas. I especially >> like the appealing idea of correlating interdependencies >> in the genotype with the ruggedness of fitness landscapes, >> although it is probably to simple. Are interdependencies >> between modules in the genotypes a reason why small changes >> in the genotype could have large effects on reproduction >> rates ? It seems plausible, but hard to prove. >> >> The fitness function depends in general on the >> success of the phenotype (reproduction rates), and the >> relationship between genotype and phenotype is very >> complex and non-linear. The fitness of a phenotype >> is easy to determine, but hard to calculate from the >> genotype. This is similar to NP-complete problems: >> the quality of a solution is easy to verify, but the >> solution itself is hard to calculate. Therefore it is >> probably hard to say how rugged the fitness landscape is >> dependent on changes in the genotype, because the fitness >> is an unpredictable emergent property of the whole system, >> including the environment. >> >> One recent concept in this area seems to be "Epistasis" >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistasis >> >> Epistasis and Shapes >> of Fitness Landscapes http://arxiv.org/abs/q-bio.PE/0603034 >> >> -J. >> >> >> ============================================================ >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org >> >> > > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org > ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
