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International Conference on Complex Systems

ICCS 2018: Unifying Themes in Complex Systems IX pp 108–119Cite as

Evolutionary Development and the VCRIS Model of Natural Selection

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Part of the Springer Proceedings in Complexity book series (SPCOM)

Abstract

This paper offers a systems definition of the phrase evolutionary development (evo devo, ED), and a few examples of generic evolutionary and developmental process in autopoetic (self-reproducing) systems. It introduces a toy conceptual model, the VCRIS evo devo model of natural selection, exploring autopoetic selection in both evolutionary and developmental terms. It includes an empirical observation, the 95/5 rule, generalized from observations in evo-devo biology, to offer a preliminary sketch of the dynamical interaction of evolutionary and developmental processes in living replicators. Autopoetic models may be applied to both to living systems and to nonliving adaptive replicators at many scales, even to the universe as a complex system, if it is a replicator in the multiverse. Evo devo models offer potentially fundamental dynamical and informational ways to understand autopoetic systems. If such models are to become validated in living systems, and generalized to nonliving autopoetic systems, they will require significant advances in both simulation and theory in coming years.

Keywords

  • 95/5 rule
  • Autopoetic systems
  • Biological development
  • Complex adaptive systems
  • Convergent evolution
  • Developmental selection
  • Evo-devo biology
  • Evo devo models
  • Evolutionary biology
  • Evolutionary development
  • Evolutionary selection
  • Fine-tuning
  • Multiverse
  • Natural selection
  • Niche construction
  • Modern evolutionary synthesis
  • Self-Organization
  • Stigmergy
  • Stochastic processes

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Acknowledgments

The author thanks Evo Devo Universe co-directors Clement Vidal, Georgi Georgiev, Michael Price, and Claudio Flores-Martinez, and the 100 or so scholars on the EDU-Talk listserve for helpful discussions. Thanks also to Carlos Gershenson and the CCS2018 committee for approving our satellite meeting on Evolution, Development, and Complexity at CCS2018, where earlier versions of these ideas were discussed.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA, 93943, USA

    John M. Smart

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  1. John M. Smart
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Correspondence to John M. Smart .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. New England Complex Systems Institute, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Prof. Alfredo J. Morales

  2. Instituto de Investigaciones en Matemáticas Aplicadas y en Sistemas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico, Distrito Federal, Mexico

    Dr. Carlos Gershenson

  3. New England Complex Systems Institute and University of Massachusetts, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Dan Braha

  4. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Ali A. Minai

  5. New England Complex Systems Institute, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Yaneer Bar-Yam

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Smart, J.M. (2018). Evolutionary Development and the VCRIS Model of Natural Selection. In: Morales, A., Gershenson, C., Braha, D., Minai, A., Bar-Yam, Y. (eds) Unifying Themes in Complex Systems IX. ICCS 2018. Springer Proceedings in Complexity. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96661-8_11

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