Posted by
Martin C. Martin-2 on
May 21, 2006; 11:54am
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/Generative-Entrenchment-and-the-Possiblity-of-Inheritance-tp521822p521824.html
This may be wrong, but I think the idea is that, if the mapping from
genotype to phenotype is very complex, mutation/crossover will have
essentially arbitrary effects. It will be hard for any such change to
have a coherent effect on the individual.
Things like development make the relationship between a gene and it's
effect on the organism very complex. In other words, the emergent
behavior of a complex system can be very surprising, and the
interactions between development rules can lead to many surprises.
In a way, it's a question of representation. As AI has discovered many
times over, "representation is king:" the hardest part of applying any
technique is getting the representation correct.
Which suggests that an interesting question is: what representation is
life on earth using? Not just how DNA maps to proteins, but how
mutations affect the final genotype. Perhaps variation and selection
are the easiest part of understanding evolution; perhaps understanding
the representation will give us much more insight.
This may have nothing at all to do with what the original poster
intended, but I think it's an interesting idea on it's own. :)
- Martin
Jochen Fromm wrote:
> I am not convinced that there is a problem here.
> Can you explain the problem in simple words without
> using the term "generative entrenchment" ? This
> should be possible if it is more than a nebulous idea.
>
> "Generative Entrenchment" is a concept proposed by
> William C. Wimsatt, a Professor of Philosophy from the
> University of Chicago. He uses "Entrenchment" in the
> sense of encapsulation. We can investigate a system
> and its parts because not everything is connected to
> everything else. If there is a high interdependency
> between many dependent modules in a complex system,
> how can a complex system be controlled and organized if
> all components of a system are closely linked together ?
> Obviously it cannot work if parts of the system
> are not isolated and encapsulated from each other.
> I guess encapsulation and codes are the key here.
> The phenomenon of strong emergence comes to mind.
> Once a new system evolves in an old system, the old
> system has reached the point of maximal complexity
> and apparently stops to evolve, because a change in
> the base would topple the whole system. This means the
> system at the base and the connection between both
> systems (in form of the corresponding code) are frozen.
>
> However is there a need for a new complicated buzzword ?
> I would rather consider philosophers and sociologists
> as experts in "Generative Entrenchment", because
> they ENTRENCH (or encapsulate) our ignorance so well
> behind newly GENERATED complicated terms.
>
> -J.
>
>
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