How Symbiosis Can Guide Evolution

Hinton and Nowlan have demonstrated a model of how lifetime plasticity can guide evolution. They show how acquired traits change the shape of the reward landscape in which subsequent genetic variation takes place, and in so doing encourage the discovery of equivalent heritable traits. This enables the seemingly Lamarkian inheritance of acquired characteristics without the direct transfer of information from the phenotype to the genotype. This paper draws direct inspiration from their work to illustrate a different phenomenon. We demonstrate how the formation of symbiotic relationships in an ecosystem can guide the course of subsequent genetic variation. This phenomenon can be described as two phases: First, symbiotic groups find solutions where individual organisms cannot, simply because lifetime interaction produces new combinations of abilities more rapidly than the relatively slow genetic variation of individuals. Second, these symbiotic groups subsequently change the shape of the r...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1999
• Where: ECAL
• Authors: Richard A. Watson, Jordan B. Pollack
• Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, ECAL 1999, Genetic Variation, Reward Landscape, Subsequent Genetic Variation