Related papers: Are complex systems hard to evolve?
A common assumption in evolutionary thought is that adaptation drives an increase in biological complexity. However, the rules governing evolution of complexity appear more nuanced. Evolution is deeply connected to learning, where…
In this paper we investigate networks whose evolution is governed by the interaction of a random assembly process and an optimization process. In the first process, new nodes are added one at a time and form connections to randomly selected…
Enzymes are on the front lines of evolution. All living organisms rely on highly efficient, specific enzymes for growth, sustenance, and reproduction; and many diseases are a consequence of a mutation on an enzyme that affects its catalytic…
Evolutionary and bioinspired computation are crucial for efficiently addressing complex optimization problems across diverse application domains. By mimicking processes observed in nature, like evolution itself, these algorithms offer…
Cellular automata are both computational and dynamical systems. We give a complete classification of the dynamic behaviour of elementary cellular automata (ECA) in terms of fundamental dynamic system notions such as sensitivity and…
We argue that the coordination of the activities of individual complex agents enables a system to develop and sustain complexity at a higher level. We exemplify relevant mechanisms through computer simulations of a toy system, a coupled map…
Many complex systems satisfy a set of constraints on their degrees of freedom, and at the same time, they are able to work and adapt to different conditions. Here, we describe the emergence of this ability in a simplified model in which the…
While modern physics and biology satisfactorily explain the passage from the Big Bang to the formation of Earth and the first cells to present-day life, respectively, the origins of biochemical life still remain an open question. Since…
Evolutionary dynamics is often viewed as a subtle process of change accumulation that causes a divergence among organisms and their genomes. However, this interpretation is an inheritance of a gradualistic view that has been challenged at…
The determinisation problem for min-plus (tropical) weighted automata was recently shown to be decidable. However, the proof is purely existential, relying on several non-constructive arguments. Our contribution in this work is twofold:…
Biological organisms adapt to changes by processing informations from different sources, most notably from their ancestors and from their environment. We review an approach to quantify these informations by analyzing mathematical models of…
This paper proposes a systems approach to social sciences based on mathematical framework derived from a generalization of the mathematical kinetic theory and on theoretical tools of game theory. Social systems are modeled as a living…
Open-ended evolutionary dynamics remains an elusive goal for artificial evolutionary systems. Many ideas exist in the biological literature beyond the basic Darwinian requirements of variation, differential reproduction and inheritance. I…
Behavioural differences may arise in the absence of genetic or environmental variation. Chaotic dynamics may influence behavioural development, and so this among-individual variation. We discuss methods and experimental designs to test this…
Within the framework of generalized combinatorial approach, the complexity is determined for infinite set of self-similar hierarchical ensembles. This complexity is shown to increase with strengthening of the hierarchy coupling to the…
The structural constants of an evolution algebra is given by a quadratic matrix $A$. In this work we establish equivalence between nil, right nilpotent evolution algebras and evolution algebras, which are defined by upper triangular matrix…
Why life is complex and --most importantly-- what is the origin of the over abundance of complexity in nature? This is a fundamental scientific question which, paraphrasing the late Per Bak, "is screaming to be answered but seldom is even…
Despite encouraging recent progresses in ensemble approaches, classification methods seem to have reached a plateau in development. Further advances depend on a better understanding of geometrical and topological characteristics of point…
A hierarchical model for multi-level adaptive systems is built on two basic levels: a lower behavioural level B accounting for the actual behaviour of the system and an upper structural level S describing the adaptation dynamics of the…
Social evolutionary theory seeks to explain increases in the scale and complexity of human societies, from origins to present. Over the course of the twentieth century, social evolutionary theory largely fell out of favor as a way of…