How does non-living matter exhibit open-ended evolution?
ORAL · Invited
Abstract
The most striking aspect of the phenomenon of life is that it appears to exhibit open-ended growth of complexity. What is the origin of this phenomenon and how can we construct models that recapitulate it? Life is composed of non-living matter; how does non-living matter exhibit open-endedness? In this talk, I will discuss a simple approach that uses an analogy with fluid turbulence to construct a dynamical model of an evolving ecosystem, which exhibits a limited form of open-ended evolution of complexity. The open-endedness can be demonstrated by scaling arguments. Whether life is truly open-ended can be addressed by studying the statistical properties of phylogenetic trees, and I show that there are analogues of scale interference in critical phenomena which reflect the indelible footprint of ecology on the large-scale structure of evolution. Lastly, I will consider the question of the control of open-ended evolution, and its implications for human health.
*Part of this work was performed in collaboration with Chi Xue and Zhiru Liu and supported by NASA through co-operative agreement NNA13AA91A through the NASA Astrobiology Institute for Universal Biology. Part of this work was performed with Nicholas Guttenberg and supported by supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. NSF-EF-0526747
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Publication: N. Guttenberg and N. Goldenfeld. Cascade of complexity in evolving predator-prey dynamics. Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 058102:1-4 (2008)
Chi Xue, Zhiru Liu and Nigel Goldenfeld. Scale-invariant topology and bursty branching of evolutionary trees emerge from niche construction. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 117, 7879-7887 (2020)
Presenters
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Nigel Goldenfeld
- University of California, San Diego