The Genetics of Information and the Evolution of Avatars

Abstract

Evolution requires that heritable changes in organisms occur over a period of time. In his seminal work “The Origin of Species”, Darwin (1859) suggested that the mechanism by which such evolutionary changes took place was natural selection which favoured individuals or groups. He stated “individuals having any advantage, however slight, over others, would have the best chance of surviving and procreating their kind.” The problem which has confronted evolutionary biologists in their attempts to interpret Darwin’s work is what is the precise definition of “their kind”. The importance of what is transmitted (i.e. information) from one generation to the next had been noted by biologists such as Weissman (the id) and the rules of its transmission, from one generation to the next by means of sexual reproduction, had been defined by Gregor Mendel. The synthesis of these observations with the mechanism proposed by Darwin has formed the main thrust of evolutionary biology in the 20th century. Neo-Darwin-ism is an attempt to link the transmission of genetic information with the evolution of individuals, groups and, more recently, molecules.