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Artificial Life Experiments Show How Complex Functions Can Evolve
NSF ^ | May 8, 2003 | Staff

Posted on 05/08/2003 10:11:06 AM PDT by Nebullis

Artificial Life Experiments Show How Complex Functions Can Evolve

Arlington, Va.—If the evolution of complex organisms were a road trip, then the simple country drives are what get you there. And sometimes even potholes along the way are important.

An interdisciplinary team of scientists at Michigan State University and the California Institute of Technology, with the help of powerful computers, has used a kind of artificial life, or ALife, to create a road map detailing the evolution of complex organisms, an old problem in biology.

In an article in the May 8 issue of the international journal Nature, Richard Lenski, Charles Ofria, Robert Pennock, and Christoph Adami report that the path to complex organisms is paved with a long series of simple functions, each unremarkable if viewed in isolation. "This project addresses a fundamental criticism of the theory of evolution, how complex functions arise from mutation and natural selection," said Sam Scheiner, program director in the division of environmental biology at the National Science Foundation (NSF), which funded the research through its Biocomplexity in the Environment initiative. "These simulations will help direct research on living systems and will provide understanding of the origins of biocomplexity."

Some mutations that cause damage in the short term ultimately become a positive force in the genetic pedigree of a complex organism. "The little things, they definitely count," said Lenski of Michigan State, the paper's lead author. "Our work allowed us to see how the most complex functions are built up from simpler and simpler functions. We also saw that some mutations looked like bad events when they happened, but turned out to be really important for the evolution of the population over a long period of time."

In the key phrase, "a long period of time," lies the magic of ALife. Lenski teamed up with Adami, a scientist at Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Ofria, a Michigan State computer scientist, to further explore ALife.

Pennock, a Michigan State philosopher, joined the team to study an artificial world inside a computer, a world in which computer programs take the place of living organisms. These computer programs go forth and multiply, they mutate and they adapt by natural selection.

The program, called Avida, is an artificial petri dish in which organisms not only reproduce, but also perform mathematical calculations to obtain rewards. Their reward is more computer time that they can use for making copies of themselves. Avida randomly adds mutations to the copies, thus spurring natural selection and evolution. The research team watched how these "bugs" adapted and evolved in different environments inside their artificial world.

Avida is the biologist's race car - a really souped up one. To watch the evolution of most living organisms would require thousands of years – without blinking. The digital bugs evolve at lightening speed, and they leave tracks for scientists to study.

"The cool thing is that we can trace the line of descent," Lenski said. "Out of a big population of organisms you can work back to see the pivotal mutations that really mattered during the evolutionary history of the population. The human mind can't sort through so much data, but we developed a tool to find these pivotal events."

There are no missing links with this technology.

Evolutionary theory sometimes struggles to explain the most complex features of organisms. Lenski uses the human eye as an example. It's obviously used for seeing, and it has all sorts of parts - like a lens that can be focused at different distances - that make it well suited for that use. But how did something so complicated as the eye come to be?

Since Charles Darwin, biologists have concluded that such features must have arisen through lots of intermediates and, moreover, that these intermediate structures may once have served different functions from what we see today. The crystalline proteins that make up the lens of the eye, for example, are related to those that serve enzymatic functions unrelated to vision. So, the theory goes, evolution borrowed an existing protein and used it for a new function.

"Over time," Lenski said, "an old structure could be tweaked here and there to improve it for its new function, and that's a lot easier than inventing something entirely new."

That's where ALife sheds light.

"Darwinian evolution is a process that doesn't specify exactly how the evolving information is coded," says Adami, who leads the Digital Life Laboratory at Caltech. "It affects DNA and computer code in much the same way, which allows us to study evolution in this electronic medium."

Many computer scientists and engineers are now using processes based on principles of genetics and evolution to solve complex problems, design working robots, and more. Ofria says that "we can then apply these concepts when trying to decide how best to solve computational problems."

"Evolutionary design," says Pennock, "can often solve problems better than we can using our own intelligence."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: ai; crevolist
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To: Dimensio
Yeah, I've asked a couple of times on here, "Can non-Christians be conservatives?" I always get told, "Sure!", but I have a feeling that there are those who don't think so.
221 posted on 05/08/2003 12:27:45 PM PDT by RonF
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To: donh
"Hogwash. The eohippus-horse progression gets better established with each passing decade's new finds."

I'd like to see some more current references to this. The data don't hold up due to the structural dis-similarity of each successive creature (if you are referring to the old standard chart which has been around since the 60's, which I assume you are).
222 posted on 05/08/2003 12:27:47 PM PDT by webstersII
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To: longshadow
Those who believed that statistics has been disproven were playing slot machines.

Guess Bill Bennett's a creationist.

223 posted on 05/08/2003 12:28:30 PM PDT by Right Wing Professor
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To: Aric2000
I think successful examples of genetic programming give the flat earthers the heebie jeebies. It knocks the legs out of all their bogus second law arguments. Heck, it even gives IT types the heebie jeebies, because it suggests that non-deterministic computing is possible and might be useful.
224 posted on 05/08/2003 12:28:39 PM PDT by js1138
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To: AmericanAge
Did I accidentally stumble into DU somehow?

Close-- a libertarian den of secularists.

225 posted on 05/08/2003 12:28:47 PM PDT by Dataman
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To: js1138
Yes, I did. I responded that you need to first show how all of Gen 1 can be "a phrase".
226 posted on 05/08/2003 12:28:57 PM PDT by AmericanAge
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To: Right Wing Professor
What evolutionists are doing ...

is using conservative scientific rhetoric to force teach liberal tyranny (( satanism // atheism )) ---

a bolshevic monopoly to persecute theists (( true conservatives )) !


227 posted on 05/08/2003 12:29:00 PM PDT by f.Christian (( Marching orders: comfort the afflicted // afflict the comfortable ! ! ))
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To: RonF
There are those on FR who think Catholics can't be conservatives. Although that's probably because they think Catholics are not Christians.
228 posted on 05/08/2003 12:29:40 PM PDT by Right Wing Professor
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To: AmericanAge
You should see how they try to claim that whales came from little foxlike animals.

The fox is a relatively modern mammal. Could you provide a reference for this claim?

229 posted on 05/08/2003 12:30:51 PM PDT by donh
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To: CobaltBlue
I am not aware of any other creationists but I may be wrong here.

Interestingly enough, some of the virulent fundamentalist elements of Islam share this belief in Creationism. The Taliban, in particular, was one such group.

230 posted on 05/08/2003 12:30:53 PM PDT by longshadow
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To: f.Christian
301 - Roller Disco

Original Airdate: 22-Sep-1979

Plot: Jon and Getraer ride together while Ponch is busy hunting down stars for the annual CHP roller disco. At the pier, a kid observes someone steal a wallet and gets the idea of stealing some change from a woman on a pay phone. He escapes by grabbing onto a bumper of a station wagon. Jon and Getraer find the kid on the freeway and manage to stop the car after the theme. Ponch and Jon go and talk to Mark (the kid's) older sister. Ponch learns that Mark's sister teaches some celebrities how to roller skate so Ponch talks her into getting some for the CHP roller disco. Later, two guys cause an accident when they lower the rear end of their car and create sparks. Following up on the accident, Ponch and Jon visit Jimmy Tyler in the hospital. He's a "big rock star" and Ponch has all his records. Ponch convinces his agent, Frank Balford, to help get some celebrities for the CHP roller disco. Later, the wallet thieves steal a belt pouch. When Ponch and Jon come to the rescue, they get knocked on their backs and the thieves escape on skates. After the briefing, Ponch is near the Beverly Hills Hotel looking at a map to the homes of the stars. A friendly man helps him and announces Jon's arrival with his famous "Heeeere's Johnny!" Ed McMahon drives off as Ponch realizes who he is. Meanwhile, Jimmy gets upset with his agent and fires him. After he goes out driving because he's so upset, Ponch and Jon come across Grossie (who found Jimmy crying on the side of the freeway). Jon lets Jimmy stay at his apartment. Within a minute, Jimmy falls asleep. That afternoon, the roller skating thieves are at it again. They rob a jewelery store as Mark watches. Ponch and Jon each chase the skating men while the woman gets away. As one heads to the beach, we see "To Be Continued"!

231 posted on 05/08/2003 12:31:04 PM PDT by Grando Calrissian
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To: f.Christian
302 - Roller Disco Part II

Original Airdate: 22-Sep-1979

Plot: Starting with a bit of a re-cap, we continue from where Part I left off. Jon loses the skater he was chasing. Meanwhile, Ponch is still looking for his but can't find him. Luckily Ponch comes up with a plan just before the theme. After riding the carousel, Ponch and Jon ask their roller disco teaching friends to show them the neighborhood. After walking their dates home, Ponch and Jon go to the roller disco rehersal. The next day, Jimmy is managing his hectic life in Jon's apartment with the stereo turned up. Out on the freeway, the anti-tailgaters are still at it and causing accidents. Our heroes find them and chase them. Ponch and Jon make the arrest after the anti-tailgaters back into a telephone pole. Back at Jon's apartment, Jimmy is making lots of noise and making calls to London. Jon has a talk with him while Ponch has a talk with Balford, Jimmy's agent. The next day, the roller skatign thieves rob a bank. Ponch and Jon respond and are helped by Bonnie and Mark, the kid who held onto the car bumper. Bonnie arrests the woman while Ponch arrests the man in the white shirt and Jon and Mark get the guy in the black shirt. Brace yourselves, it's time to Skate with the Stars! It can't be summarized in words. Just when you thought it couldn't get worse, there's the "First-Ever Roller Disco Beauty Contest". That's followed up by a live performance of "Give In" given by Jimmy Tyler. The episode ends with Jimmy and Balford getting back together

232 posted on 05/08/2003 12:32:48 PM PDT by Grando Calrissian
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To: Dataman
"Close-- a libertarian den of secularists."

It's sad that they've been trying to hijack conservatism, and take all of the morals out of it.
233 posted on 05/08/2003 12:32:58 PM PDT by AmericanAge
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To: Dimensio
Um, how?

HALO jump sans chute?

234 posted on 05/08/2003 12:33:06 PM PDT by jwalsh07
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To: js1138
It gives me the heebie jeebies, I can just see some computer evolving into something out of the matrix, that scares me. damn movies anyway!!

Besides that, it excites me, because a computer has evolved circuits already that work better then the ones we created, the problem is, we can't figure out how the circuit does what it does. Now that is scary.
235 posted on 05/08/2003 12:34:15 PM PDT by Aric2000 (Are you on Grampa Dave's team? I am!! $5 a month is all it takes, come join!!!)
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To: longshadow
Ah, so we're now the Taliban? And you insult us for so much as calling you what you are - Bible Nonbelievers, Borderline Atheists, and Wholehearted Atheists?
236 posted on 05/08/2003 12:34:19 PM PDT by AmericanAge
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To: jwalsh07
HALO jump sans chute?

What result would disprove the existence of God? This doesn't seem like a very scientific test. In fact, it seems downright stupid.
237 posted on 05/08/2003 12:34:36 PM PDT by Dimensio (Sometimes I doubt your committment to Sparkle Motion!)
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To: Dimensio
A good explanation for the evo -- atheist cult is demon possession --- deliverance !
238 posted on 05/08/2003 12:35:14 PM PDT by f.Christian (( Marching orders: comfort the afflicted // afflict the comfortable ! ! ))
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To: AmericanAge
No wonder that even with complete control of the schools in this country, you've only managed to get about 50% of people to buy into your pseudoscience, and only because they trust that you somehow know what you're doing simply because it's being taught in the classroom.

If there is so much evidence, if the theory has evolved into a fact, if creation is utterly absurd, then why only 50%? Answer: There is a pile of government money, there is coercion in the public schools, there is lying and evidence-manufacturing, there is suppression of opposition and much carnival barking but there is little evidence and there is zero proof.

239 posted on 05/08/2003 12:35:57 PM PDT by Dataman
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To: AmericanAge
The deadliest battle yet for Conservatism: The Evolution // atheist Juggernaut versus the Culture of Life.
240 posted on 05/08/2003 12:36:16 PM PDT by f.Christian (( Marching orders: comfort the afflicted // afflict the comfortable ! ! ))
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