Relaxed selection

[Jochen Fromm-4]

One of the things I am interested in is how nature
creatures complex things. The latest New Scientist
(from 27 Sep. 2008) has an article named "As if from
nowhere" about the topic of "relaxed selection", a
concept invented by Terry Deacon. Terry Deacon is
an anthropology professor at Berkeley.

According to Deacon, relaxed selection is a special
form of natural selection, where the selection
pressure and the competition is low (i.e. where
natural selection itself is nearly absent), and the
variety of traits which are able to survive and
reproduce is high. When the selection pressures lift,
genomes go wandering and new, unexpected traits may
arise. I think if there is a "relaxed selection",
then one can also speak of a "fierce selection":
a natural selection with fierce competition when
the climate is harsh and the food is sparse. Under
this conditions only the best, well adapted individuals
survive.

Does natural selection occurs in different degrees?
During "relaxed selection", the system enters an
exploration phase: the chances of finding new
configurations, traits and features are higher.
The selection pressure for a species to remain
in the corresponding niche is lower.
During "fierce selection", the system enters an
exploitation phase: chances of optimizing existing
configurations, traits and features are higher.
The selection pressure for a species to remain
in the corresponding niche is higher.

What do you think of "relaxed selection" ?
Is Deacon onto something?

-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

[Phil Henshaw-2]

Jochen,
That concept of alternating opportunistic and constrained developmental
phases, 'relaxed' then 'fierce' selection regimes, sounds like a statistical
version of the behavioral model that growth begins from minute beginnings in
an environment without constraint except itself.  When that kind of growth
exhausts its initially unlimited opportunities and runs into constraints
then integrating with an environment becomes the selective test.  That
switch from just freely expanding on the past to adapting in relation to
emerging future constraints corresponds to immature growth followed by
maturation at climax (¸¸.•´¯¯) and their very different selection regimes.  

The behavioral 'trick' needed to make that statistical idea into a
functional description of a new mode of evolution is letting the system be
active partner and the environment a passive one.  If the system actively
explores its environment, just like you see virtually all living things are
visibly doing whenever they're not sleeping, then the form of the system
doesn't need to be present in the environment before the system develops.
That's always been the real undiscussed problem with the normal Darwinian
model.  It's that individual exploratory habit of a system that makes
opportunistic development such as Deacon describes physically possible.
That's what my plankton paper shows is happening with G. tumida, a series of
progressive evolutionary spurts and collapses on the way to the
stabilization of a new form, clear active individual behavior in a passive
environment.

Phil

> -----Original Message-----
> From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On
> Behalf Of Jochen Fromm
> Sent: Monday, October 06, 2008 3:34 PM
> To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
> Subject: [FRIAM] Relaxed selection
>
> One of the things I am interested in is how nature
> creatures complex things. The latest New Scientist
> (from 27 Sep. 2008) has an article named "As if from
> nowhere" about the topic of "relaxed selection", a
> concept invented by Terry Deacon. Terry Deacon is
> an anthropology professor at Berkeley.
>
> According to Deacon, relaxed selection is a special
> form of natural selection, where the selection
> pressure and the competition is low (i.e. where
> natural selection itself is nearly absent), and the
> variety of traits which are able to survive and
> reproduce is high. When the selection pressures lift,
> genomes go wandering and new, unexpected traits may
> arise. I think if there is a "relaxed selection",
> then one can also speak of a "fierce selection":
> a natural selection with fierce competition when
> the climate is harsh and the food is sparse. Under
> this conditions only the best, well adapted individuals
> survive.
>
> Does natural selection occurs in different degrees?
> During "relaxed selection", the system enters an
> exploration phase: the chances of finding new
> configurations, traits and features are higher.
> The selection pressure for a species to remain
> in the corresponding niche is lower.
> During "fierce selection", the system enters an
> exploitation phase: chances of optimizing existing
> configurations, traits and features are higher.
> The selection pressure for a species to remain
> in the corresponding niche is higher.
>
> What do you think of "relaxed selection" ?
> Is Deacon onto something?
>
> -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

[Russell Standish]

David Green proposed somewhat similar ideas back in around
2000. Someone else (I forget who now) mentioned it again in a slightly
different form within the last year in an Artificial Life article. I
tried running an experiment implementing this idea using Tierra, but
have found that I need to reimplement Tierra, as computers are now so
fast that Tierra's genebanker code overflows within a day or so of
runtime.

I hope to get around to this over the next year, hopefully before the
Budapest ECAL conference.

Cheers

On Mon, Oct 06, 2008 at 09:33:39PM +0200, Jochen Fromm wrote:

> One of the things I am interested in is how nature
> creatures complex things. The latest New Scientist
> (from 27 Sep. 2008) has an article named "As if from
> nowhere" about the topic of "relaxed selection", a
> concept invented by Terry Deacon. Terry Deacon is
> an anthropology professor at Berkeley.
>
> According to Deacon, relaxed selection is a special
> form of natural selection, where the selection
> pressure and the competition is low (i.e. where
> natural selection itself is nearly absent), and the
> variety of traits which are able to survive and
> reproduce is high. When the selection pressures lift,
> genomes go wandering and new, unexpected traits may
> arise. I think if there is a "relaxed selection",
> then one can also speak of a "fierce selection":
> a natural selection with fierce competition when
> the climate is harsh and the food is sparse. Under
> this conditions only the best, well adapted individuals
> survive.
>
> Does natural selection occurs in different degrees?
> During "relaxed selection", the system enters an
> exploration phase: the chances of finding new
> configurations, traits and features are higher.
> The selection pressure for a species to remain
> in the corresponding niche is lower.
> During "fierce selection", the system enters an
> exploitation phase: chances of optimizing existing
> configurations, traits and features are higher.
> The selection pressure for a species to remain
> in the corresponding niche is higher.
>
> What do you think of "relaxed selection" ?
> Is Deacon onto something?
>
> -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

--

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
A/Prof Russell Standish                  Phone [phone] (mobile)
Mathematics                        
UNSW SYDNEY 2052                 [hidden email]
Australia                                http://www.hpcoders.com.au
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

============================================================
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

[Phil Henshaw-2]

I'll look up David Green.   There have been several directions that people
have taken to the fast/slow evolution evidence originally clarified by
Stephen J Gould.   Kirschner and Gerhart's approach in "The Plausibility of
Life" is somewhat like the one I proposed, that the speed control is not
variation in the selective pressure but variation in development rates for a
local exploratory process.  That's quite clearly what's evident in the form
of transition seen with that plankton of mine.   Reasoning it that way does
present some other challenges, of course, but does have the advantage of
getting rid of the highly inelegant notion that the form of new creatures
pre-exists as a kind of negative image in their potential environments.

Phil

> -----Original Message-----
> From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On
> Behalf Of Russell Standish
> Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2008 5:55 AM
> To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Relaxed selection
>
> David Green proposed somewhat similar ideas back in around
> 2000. Someone else (I forget who now) mentioned it again in a slightly
> different form within the last year in an Artificial Life article. I
> tried running an experiment implementing this idea using Tierra, but
> have found that I need to reimplement Tierra, as computers are now so
> fast that Tierra's genebanker code overflows within a day or so of
> runtime.
>
> I hope to get around to this over the next year, hopefully before the
> Budapest ECAL conference.
>
> Cheers
>
> On Mon, Oct 06, 2008 at 09:33:39PM +0200, Jochen Fromm wrote:
> > One of the things I am interested in is how nature
> > creatures complex things. The latest New Scientist
> > (from 27 Sep. 2008) has an article named "As if from
> > nowhere" about the topic of "relaxed selection", a
> > concept invented by Terry Deacon. Terry Deacon is
> > an anthropology professor at Berkeley.
> >
> > According to Deacon, relaxed selection is a special
> > form of natural selection, where the selection
> > pressure and the competition is low (i.e. where
> > natural selection itself is nearly absent), and the
> > variety of traits which are able to survive and
> > reproduce is high. When the selection pressures lift,
> > genomes go wandering and new, unexpected traits may
> > arise. I think if there is a "relaxed selection",
> > then one can also speak of a "fierce selection":
> > a natural selection with fierce competition when
> > the climate is harsh and the food is sparse. Under
> > this conditions only the best, well adapted individuals
> > survive.
> >
> > Does natural selection occurs in different degrees?
> > During "relaxed selection", the system enters an
> > exploration phase: the chances of finding new
> > configurations, traits and features are higher.
> > The selection pressure for a species to remain
> > in the corresponding niche is lower.
> > During "fierce selection", the system enters an
> > exploitation phase: chances of optimizing existing
> > configurations, traits and features are higher.
> > The selection pressure for a species to remain
> > in the corresponding niche is higher.
> >
> > What do you think of "relaxed selection" ?
> > Is Deacon onto something?
> >
> > -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
>
> --
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> -----
> A/Prof Russell Standish                  Phone [phone] (mobile)
> Mathematics
> UNSW SYDNEY 2052                 [hidden email]
> Australia                                http://www.hpcoders.com.au
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> ============================================================
> 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

[Gus Koehler-2]

 
Some additional, perhaps helpful, references:

Blackstone, Neil (1997). Dose-Response Relationships for Experimental
Heterochrony in a Cologial Hydroid.  The Biological Bulletin, Vol. 193, No.
1.

Gould, Stephen (1977). Ontogeny and Phylogeny. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap
Press of Harvard Press.

Kauffman, Stuart (1983). "Developmental Constraints: Internal Factors in
Evolution," in B. C. Goodwin, N. Holder, and CC.Wylie (eds).  Development
and Evolution. Cambridge: Cambridge Press.

Kauffman, Stuart (1993).  The Origins of Order.  New York: Oxford University
Press.

McGhee, George R. (1999). Theoretical Morphology : the Concept and its
Applications. New York : Columbia University Press.

McKinney, M.L. and K. J. McNamara (1990). Heterochrony: The Evolution of
Ontogeny. New York: Plenum Press.

Thom, Rene (1972). Structural Stability and Morphogenesis: An Outline of a
General Theory of Models.  New York: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc.



Gus Koehler, PhD., CEO


 
www.timestructures.com
1545 University Avenue
Sacramento, CA 95825
916.564.8683   Fax: [phone]
Cell: 916.716.1740
www.timestructures.com
[hidden email]

-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf
Of Phil Henshaw
Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2008 6:21 AM
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group'
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Relaxed selection

I'll look up David Green.   There have been several directions that people
have taken to the fast/slow evolution evidence originally clarified by
Stephen J Gould.   Kirschner and Gerhart's approach in "The Plausibility of
Life" is somewhat like the one I proposed, that the speed control is not
variation in the selective pressure but variation in development rates for a
local exploratory process.  That's quite clearly what's evident in the form
of transition seen with that plankton of mine.   Reasoning it that way does
present some other challenges, of course, but does have the advantage of
getting rid of the highly inelegant notion that the form of new creatures
pre-exists as a kind of negative image in their potential environments.

Phil

> -----Original Message-----
> From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On
> Behalf Of Russell Standish
> Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2008 5:55 AM
> To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Relaxed selection
>
> David Green proposed somewhat similar ideas back in around 2000.
> Someone else (I forget who now) mentioned it again in a slightly
> different form within the last year in an Artificial Life article. I
> tried running an experiment implementing this idea using Tierra, but
> have found that I need to reimplement Tierra, as computers are now so
> fast that Tierra's genebanker code overflows within a day or so of
> runtime.
>
> I hope to get around to this over the next year, hopefully before the
> Budapest ECAL conference.
>
> Cheers
>
> On Mon, Oct 06, 2008 at 09:33:39PM +0200, Jochen Fromm wrote:
> > One of the things I am interested in is how nature creatures complex
> > things. The latest New Scientist (from 27 Sep. 2008) has an article
> > named "As if from nowhere" about the topic of "relaxed selection", a
> > concept invented by Terry Deacon. Terry Deacon is an anthropology
> > professor at Berkeley.
> >
> > According to Deacon, relaxed selection is a special form of natural
> > selection, where the selection pressure and the competition is low
> > (i.e. where natural selection itself is nearly absent), and the
> > variety of traits which are able to survive and reproduce is high.
> > When the selection pressures lift, genomes go wandering and new,
> > unexpected traits may arise. I think if there is a "relaxed
> > selection", then one can also speak of a "fierce selection":
> > a natural selection with fierce competition when the climate is
> > harsh and the food is sparse. Under this conditions only the best,
> > well adapted individuals survive.
> >
> > Does natural selection occurs in different degrees?
> > During "relaxed selection", the system enters an exploration phase:
> > the chances of finding new configurations, traits and features are
> > higher.
> > The selection pressure for a species to remain in the corresponding
> > niche is lower.
> > During "fierce selection", the system enters an exploitation phase:
> > chances of optimizing existing configurations, traits and features
> > are higher.
> > The selection pressure for a species to remain in the corresponding
> > niche is higher.
> >
> > What do you think of "relaxed selection" ?
> > Is Deacon onto something?
> >
> > -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
>
> --
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> -
> -----
> A/Prof Russell Standish                  Phone [phone] (mobile)
> Mathematics
> UNSW SYDNEY 2052                 [hidden email]
> Australia                                http://www.hpcoders.com.au
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> -
> -----
>
> ============================================================
> 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

[Tom Carter]

All --

  And another interesting reference:

     Article in Science: "Phenotypic Diversity, Population Growth, and Information in Fluctuating Environments" by Edo Kussell and Stanislas Leibler, Science 23 September 2005; 309: 2075-2078; published online 25 August 2005, http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/309/5743/2075.pdf

tom

On Oct 9, 2008, at 9:14 AM, Gus Koehler wrote:

Some additional, perhaps helpful, references:

Blackstone, Neil (1997). Dose-Response Relationships for Experimental
Heterochrony in a Cologial Hydroid.  The Biological Bulletin, Vol. 193, No.
1.

Gould, Stephen (1977). Ontogeny and Phylogeny. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap
Press of Harvard Press.

Kauffman, Stuart (1983). "Developmental Constraints: Internal Factors in
Evolution," in B. C. Goodwin, N. Holder, and CC.Wylie (eds).  Development
and Evolution. Cambridge: Cambridge Press.

Kauffman, Stuart (1993).  The Origins of Order.  New York: Oxford University
Press.

McGhee, George R. (1999). Theoretical Morphology : the Concept and its
Applications. New York : Columbia University Press.

McKinney, M.L. and K. J. McNamara (1990). Heterochrony: The Evolution of
Ontogeny. New York: Plenum Press.

Thom, Rene (1972). Structural Stability and Morphogenesis: An Outline of a
General Theory of Models.  New York: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc.



Gus Koehler, PhD., CEO



www.timestructures.com
1545 University Avenue
Sacramento, CA 95825
916.564.8683   Fax: [phone]
Cell: 916.716.1740
www.timestructures.com
[hidden email]

-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf
Of Phil Henshaw
Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2008 6:21 AM
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group'
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Relaxed selection

I'll look up David Green.   There have been several directions that people
have taken to the fast/slow evolution evidence originally clarified by
Stephen J Gould.   Kirschner and Gerhart's approach in "The Plausibility of
Life" is somewhat like the one I proposed, that the speed control is not
variation in the selective pressure but variation in development rates for a
local exploratory process.  That's quite clearly what's evident in the form
of transition seen with that plankton of mine.   Reasoning it that way does
present some other challenges, of course, but does have the advantage of
getting rid of the highly inelegant notion that the form of new creatures
pre-exists as a kind of negative image in their potential environments.

Phil

-----Original Message-----

From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On

Behalf Of Russell Standish

Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2008 5:55 AM

To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group

Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Relaxed selection

David Green proposed somewhat similar ideas back in around 2000.

Someone else (I forget who now) mentioned it again in a slightly

different form within the last year in an Artificial Life article. I

tried running an experiment implementing this idea using Tierra, but

have found that I need to reimplement Tierra, as computers are now so

fast that Tierra's genebanker code overflows within a day or so of

runtime.

I hope to get around to this over the next year, hopefully before the

Budapest ECAL conference.

Cheers

On Mon, Oct 06, 2008 at 09:33:39PM +0200, Jochen Fromm wrote:

One of the things I am interested in is how nature creatures complex

things. The latest New Scientist (from 27 Sep. 2008) has an article

named "As if from nowhere" about the topic of "relaxed selection", a

concept invented by Terry Deacon. Terry Deacon is an anthropology

professor at Berkeley.

According to Deacon, relaxed selection is a special form of natural

selection, where the selection pressure and the competition is low

(i.e. where natural selection itself is nearly absent), and the

variety of traits which are able to survive and reproduce is high.

When the selection pressures lift, genomes go wandering and new,

unexpected traits may arise. I think if there is a "relaxed

selection", then one can also speak of a "fierce selection":

a natural selection with fierce competition when the climate is

harsh and the food is sparse. Under this conditions only the best,

well adapted individuals survive.

Does natural selection occurs in different degrees?

During "relaxed selection", the system enters an exploration phase:

the chances of finding new configurations, traits and features are

higher.

The selection pressure for a species to remain in the corresponding

niche is lower.

During "fierce selection", the system enters an exploitation phase:

chances of optimizing existing configurations, traits and features

are higher.

The selection pressure for a species to remain in the corresponding

niche is higher.

What do you think of "relaxed selection" ?

Is Deacon onto something?

-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

--

----------------------------------------------------------------------

-

-----

A/Prof Russell Standish                  Phone [phone] (mobile)

Mathematics

UNSW SYDNEY 2052                  [hidden email]

Australia                                http://www.hpcoders.com.au

----------------------------------------------------------------------

-

-----

============================================================

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

============================================================
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