Work

Information theory, predictability and the emergence of complex life

Year: 2018

Type: article

Abstract: Despite the obvious advantage of simple life forms capable of fast replication, different levels of cognitive complexity have been achieved by living systems in terms of their potential to cope with environmental uncertainty. Against the inevitable cost associated with detecting environmental cues and responding to them in adaptive ways, we conjecture that the potential for predicting the environment can overcome the expenses associated with maintaining costly, complex structures. We present a minimal formal model grounded in information theory and selection, in which successive generations of agents are mapped into transmitters and receivers of a coded message. Our agents are guessing machines and their capacity to deal with environments of different complexity defines the conditions to sustain more complex agents.

Source: Royal Society Open Science

DOI: 10.1098/rsos.172221

Authors: Luís F. Seoane, Ricard V. Solé

Institutions: Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Institut de Biologia Evolutiva, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Santa Fe Institute

Language: English

Topic: Evolution and Genetic Dynamics

Subfield: Genetics

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,471