Friday, January 27, 2012

Trade-Offs In Evolvability

"[T]he main and broadly applicable effect of fluctuating selection on the evolution of gene regulatory networks that allow for a feedback loop is selection for specific system dynamics that confer an increased evolvability. Increased evolvability mainly results from evolution of system parameters controlling the feedback loop, into a nonlinear regime, where both phenotypic diversity and the amount of phenotypic shift caused by individual mutations are increased."
More here. To the extent that you expect your environment to change a lot (i.e., undergo "fluctuating selection"), you should prefer meta-level approaches which allow you to change your object-level strategy more quickly and less costly. To the extent that you expect your environment to remain constant, this ability and propensity to change will be a hindrance.