A Generic Neutral Model for Quantitative Comparison of Genotypic Evolutionary Activity

We use a new general-purpose model of neutral evolution of genotypes to make quantitative comparisons of diversity and adaptive evolutionary activity as a function of mutation rate among two versions of Packard's Bugs model and their neutral shadows. Comparing diversity and evolutionary activity of all these models across the mutation rate spectrum shows that the generic neutral model may have broad applicability in discovering quantitative laws involving adaptive evolutionary activity in di erent evolving systems. 1 The Need for a Generic Neutral Model Adaptive evolution is thought to produce much of the order and functionality evident in complex systems 9,7,5], but it is often di cult to distinguish adaptive change from other evolutionary phenomena such as random genetic drift and architectural necessity 6,10], and some even question whether adaptations can be objectively identi ed at all 6]. Recent progress on identifying adaptive evolutionary phenomena includes Bedau and Packa...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1999
• Where: ECAL
• Authors: Andreas Rechtsteiner, Mark A. Bedau
• Keywords: Adaptive Evolutionary Activity, Artificial Intelligence, ECAL 1999, Evolutionary Phenomena, Mutation Rate