Great Question: Part V - Evolution as an algorithm

Continuation of Great Question: Part IV.

Third problem: Evolution of intelligence

Perhaps most intriguing problem, is there a natural way for intelligence to originate from the evolution? We associate intelligence with self awareness and ability to think, but we do observe intelligent behaviors in living systems that don’t even have a central nervous system.

Bees and ants form massive colonies that behave in a very intelligent manner in most essential to colony survival activities, such as search for food, fighting enemies and procreation, all without a central intelligence host. Queens are essential for reproduction and for genetic makeup but not for making a myriad “operational” decisions. Now we have evidence that plants and trees react to sounds to boost their defenses against invading insects or adjust their roots paths to find source of water.

I propose to view natural selection as a giant “Monte Carlo” simulation that is based not on computer simulation, but on actual trial and errors in living organisms. Trial and errors resulting in perishing of cells, organisms and entire species in order to gain knowledge on how to survive viruses, parasites and catastrophic changes in the environment. The Monte-Carlo algorithm is a randomized simulation with given probability of various events. In computational math it is used to test if a given number is a primary. In physics it is used to compute a probability of interactions between elementary particles during collisions in high energy particle colliders.

In that formulation, an evolution becomes a survival algorithm, whose ultimate goal is to anticipate and formulate correct survival strategies to the future calamities by using the knowledge of past events.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Outline

On origins of evolution: Outline: ====== - The Question Setting out main question of this book: where evolution came from? How would gene, unit of evolution, will originate from the known laws of physics. The main premise of the book,  We know that the theory of evolution explains the origin of species or in more colloquial language the origin of life on this planet. This story is about the question of what is the origin of evolution itself. Throughout the history of science and quite often human history, we, as culture of humans all looking for singular explanation for all things we observe around us. First of all we are looking for singular explanation because we impatient for the one and only answer that would explain everything. We all intuitively perceive an intrinsic order to things around, how the parts of the observable world fit each other nearly perfectly. In terms of laws of nature, energy does not appear or disappear, for every action there is opposite reaction, and chaos a
Read more

Evolution Lemmas

Background The formulation below attempt to answer what is the origin of the concept of gene. The statement of this article is that a concept of a gene as a unit of evolution originates naturally under the known laws of physics. The following is the formulation of the evolution principle that applies equally well to living and non-living elements, with the best example of the principle at work in the spontaneous symmetry break phenomena. Gene equates to having a pseudo-stable property of unstable elements in the set. Example of pseudo-stable properties are particle properties such as electric charge if you an electron or color of your eyes if you are a person. An example of a set is a space of quantum fields for particles or species for humans. Initial assumptions We have a set of unstable elements that can potentially decay into a mix of more and less stable elements with different properties. Some properties of elements define how elements interact, other properties define how stable
Read more