Collective evolution and the genetic code

Vetsigian, Kalin; Woese, Carl R.; Goldenfeld, Nigel

doi:10.1073/pnas.0603780103

Cited by 324 publications

(393 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Moreover, although Darwin did not use the term neutral evolution, he acknowledged that evolutionary change can involve fixation of variants that confer no selective advantage over previous adaptations; nevertheless, neutral evolution is commonly referred to as non-Darwinian [70,75,123]. Similarly, although Darwin was not committed to the idea that all life evolved from a single common ancestor, processes such as horizontal gene transfer (that is, genes transmitted between organisms in a manner other than through traditional reproduction) are commonly referred to as non-Darwinian [131]. Finally, the existence of non-Darwinian processes does not negate the feasibility of Darwinian ones, and vice versa.…”

Section: Terminologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Subsequently von Neumann showed that the minimal algorithmic structure capable of evolving through natural selection is a self-assembly code that gets used in two distinct ways [131]. First, it is actively deciphered (by what he referred to as the constructor) to construct a new automaton, a highly self-similar replicant of itself.…”

Section: The Algorithmic Structure Of Natural Selectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Is the fitness of the Mona Lisa the number of prints made of it, or the number of people who looked at it for at least one minute, or who like it, or who imitated it, or who at least once tried to smile like the Mona Lisa? As Vetsigian et al [131] put it, when ancestry arises through acquired change rather than inherited change, descent with variation is not genealogically traceable because change is not delimited to specific ancestors but affects the community as a whole. In the case of culture, a change to one concept or idea affects the 'ecology' of representations in an individuals' mind, which in turn affects how that individual responds to situations and contributes to the evolution of culture.…”

Section: Phylogenetic Approaches To Materials Cultural Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Growing evidence that the evolutionary dynamic that gave rise to translation was nonDarwinian [131] suggests that natural selection may be inapplicable to the early stages of any evolutionary process. Indeed in developing a theoretical framework for cultural evolution, it is instructive to look at how early life itself evolved.…”

Section: Evolution Through Communal Exchangementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Research into the origin of life is stymied by the improbability of a spontaneously generated structure that replicates using a self-assembly code (such as the genetic code). This has led to widespread support for the hypothesis that the earliest protocells were not self-replicating automata but autocatalytic molecular networks that evolved (albeit haphazardly) through a nonDarwinian process involving horizontal (lateral) transfer of innovation protocols [36,73,91,105,131,133,143]. This process (illustrated schematically in Fig.…”

Section: Evolution Through Communal Exchangementioning

confidence: 99%

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An evolutionary framework for cultural change: Selectionism versus communal exchange

Gabora

2013

Physics of Life Reviews

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Dawkins' replicator-based conception of evolution has led to widespread misapplication of selectionism across the social sciences because it does not address the paradox that inspired the theory of natural selection in the first place: how do organisms accumulate change when traits acquired over their lifetime are obliterated? This is addressed by von Neumann's concept of a self-replicating automaton (SRA). A SRA consists of a self-assembly code that is used in two distinct ways: (1) actively deciphered during development to construct a self-similar replicant, and (2) passively copied to the replicant to ensure that it can reproduce. Information that is acquired over a lifetime is not transmitted to offspring, whereas information that is inherited during copying is transmitted. In cultural evolution there is no mechanism for discarding acquired change. Acquired change can accumulate orders of magnitude faster than, and quickly overwhelm, inherited change due to differential replication of variants in response to selection. This prohibits a selectionist but not an evolutionary framework for culture and the creative processes that fuel it. The importance non-Darwinian processes in biological evolution is increasingly recognized. Recent work on the origin of life suggests that early life evolved through a non-Darwinian process referred to as communal exchange that does not involve a self-assembly code, and that natural selection emerged from this more haphazard, ancestral evolutionary process. It is proposed that communal exchange provides an evolutionary framework for culture that enables specification of cognitive features necessary for a (real or artificial) society to evolve culture. This is supported by a computational model of cultural evolution and a conceptual network based program for documenting material cultural history, and it is consistent with high levels of human cooperation. Evolutionary Framework Culture 3Keywords: creativity, cultural evolution, meme, natural selection, replicator, selfreplicating automaton Evolutionary Framework Culture 4 IntroductionLike organisms, elements of culture exhibit descent with modification; new ideas and artifacts build adaptively on previous ones. If it were possible to root the social and behavioral sciences in an evolutionary framework, they might achieve a unification comparable with Darwin's unification of the life sciences. Thus it is unsurprising that, dating back to Herbert Spencer's introduction of the notion of social Darwinism a few years after Darwin's Origin of Species, Darwinian thinking has been applied to a range of phenomena outside of biology, including creativity [14,111], neural copying and pruning [11,12,13,23,26], law [55], cosmology [118], computer-mediated communication [74], and perhaps most extensively, cultural and economic change [7,8,15,71,86,87,107,108]. Elements of culture build on one another cumulatively, as demonstrated even in laboratory settings [10]. Not only does culture accumulate over time, but it adapts, diversifies,...

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Section: Terminologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Algorithmic Structure Of Natural Selectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Phylogenetic Approaches To Materials Cultural Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Evolution Through Communal Exchangementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Evolution Through Communal Exchangementioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

An evolutionary framework for cultural change: Selectionism versus communal exchange

Gabora

2013

Physics of Life Reviews

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The Universal Tree of Life and the Last Universal Cellular Ancestor: Revolution and Counterrevolutions

Forterre¹

2010

Evolutionary Genomics and Systems Biology

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Horizontal transfer of short and degraded DNA has evolutionary implications for microbes and eukaryotic sexual reproduction

Overballe‐Petersen

Willerslev

2014

BioEssays

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Horizontal gene transfer in the form of long DNA fragments has changed our view of bacterial evolution. Recently, we discovered that such processes may also occur with the massive amounts of short and damaged DNA in the environment, and even with truly ancient DNA. Although it presently remains unclear how often it takes place in nature, horizontal gene transfer of short and damaged DNA opens up the possibility for genetic exchange across distinct species in both time and space. In this essay, we speculate on the potential evolutionary consequences of this phenomenon. We argue that it may challenge basic assumptions in evolutionary theory; that it may have distant origins in life's history; and that horizontal gene transfer should be viewed as an evolutionary strategy not only preceding but causally underpinning the evolution of sexual reproduction.

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Collective evolution and the genetic code

Cited by 324 publications

References 29 publications

An evolutionary framework for cultural change: Selectionism versus communal exchange

An evolutionary framework for cultural change: Selectionism versus communal exchange

The Universal Tree of Life and the Last Universal Cellular Ancestor: Revolution and Counterrevolutions

Horizontal transfer of short and degraded DNA has evolutionary implications for microbes and eukaryotic sexual reproduction

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