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Darwinian demons, evolutionary complexity, and information maximization.

David C Krakauer1

  • 1Santa Fe Institute, New Mexico 87501, USA.

Chaos (Woodbury, N.Y.)
|October 7, 2011
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Natural selection acts like a Maxwell's demon, limiting organismal complexity to that of their environment. Thermodynamic limits on error correction also constrain information transfer, even with evolved learning mechanisms.

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Thermodynamics
  • Information Theory

Background:

  • Natural selection is a key mechanism driving evolutionary change.
  • Maxwell's demon is a thought experiment exploring thermodynamics and information.
  • Organismal complexity and environmental complexity are central to evolutionary theory.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To reframe natural selection through the lens of Maxwell's demon.
  • To introduce a 'demonic selection principle' linking organismal and environmental complexity.
  • To explore thermodynamic constraints on information transfer in evolution.

Main Methods:

  • Conceptual framework linking natural selection to Maxwell's demon.
  • Introduction of a demonic selection principle.
  • Analysis of thermodynamic constraints on information transfer and error correction.
  • Use of mutual information as a measure of evolutionary complexity.

Main Results:

  • Natural selection is analogous to a Maxwell's demon, imposing limits on organismal complexity relative to the selective environment.
  • Thermodynamic constraints on error repair fundamentally limit the rate of information transfer from environment to genome.
  • Learned behaviors and inference are also constrained by environmental complexity and reward signals.

Conclusions:

  • Organismal complexity is thermodynamically bounded by environmental complexity.
  • Information transfer in evolution is subject to fundamental physical limits.
  • Niche construction may increase evolutionary complexity, but is constrained by energy costs for error correction.