Author Topic: Aritcle about lineages and altruism  (Read 3442 times)

Offline Endy

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Aritcle about lineages and altruism
« on: December 19, 2005, 01:07:55 AM »
Article

Good article about evolution's relation to overall lineages of a species and not a single member. I found the discussion of the value of more flexible genes particullarly interesting. Also has some interesting points about the bennefits and problems with altruistic and nonaltruistic species.

The results in DB from almost any sim seem to generally agree with what the article is saying about altrists. Our normally altruistic bots are "kind" to supposed kin, allowing them to reach massive populations, at the expense to individuals in life span. The nonaltruistic Canni's bennefit their own life spans at the expense of population sizes.

Makes me wonder if perhaps a canni and and altruist combined phenotype bot would perhaps balance the two.

Offline Endy

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Aritcle about lineages and altruism
« Reply #1 on: December 19, 2005, 03:50:31 AM »
Found another interesting bit about evolution at the site. It talks about Lag Load which is basically the difference between a geneome's optimal form and current form:

(Gopt - Gnow)/Gopt=Lag

Basically the reason for all the extinctions we see in DB is that the L is too high, that is that the genomes aren't evolving fast enough to cope with the changes they face.

Somehow we need a beter evolution system that can make up the difference. I think the mutation system we have now works well enough, we just need to figure out a way for it to do more. Tall order to even contemplate, humans figuring out how to allow a program do what nature does.

Alright enough for today, gotta sleep sometime. :)

Offline Numsgil

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Aritcle about lineages and altruism
« Reply #2 on: December 19, 2005, 01:19:38 PM »
Looks interesting, I don't have time now to read it, but it I don't respond with something in a few days be sure to remind me!

Offline shvarz

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Aritcle about lineages and altruism
« Reply #3 on: December 19, 2005, 01:54:47 PM »
Difficult article for me, computer people have their own vocabulary.  They also spend too much time explaining obvious (to me) things and not enough explaining difficult (to me) concepts :)
"Never underestimate the power of stupid things in big numbers" - Serious Sam

Offline Numsgil

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Aritcle about lineages and altruism
« Reply #4 on: December 20, 2005, 09:26:41 PM »
That's how I feel about biology articles.  Things like "reverse enzyme kinetics using Michaelson-Morley model" was gibberish to me.