Biomedical and Electrical Engineer with interests in information theory, evolution, genetics, abstract mathematics, microbiology, big history, IndieWeb, mnemonics, and the entertainment industry including: finance, distribution, representation
The Evolution of Information Gathering: Operational Constraints by Cynthia F. Kurtz
The Evolution of Information Gathering: Operational Constraints
Cynthia F. Kurtz
1991 Master's Thesis, SUNY Stony Brook, Ecology & Evolution
Abstract: I present two new approaches to the study of information in foraging theory. First, rather than determine the cost a forager should pay to obtain information, I concentrate on the consequences of information use in an interacting population. I describe a density-dependent model which tracks genotypes with high and low information access through evolutionary time. Stable polymorphisms result. I suggest that the value of information is not monotonically increasing. Second, I present a scheme for partitioning the information used in the decision making process. Three types of information are recognized: internal information, or an individual's internal state; external information, or environmental factors; and relational information, or rules for predicting transformations of internal state. Interactions between the three types are examined in an extension of the basic model.
[1503.02776] The Emergence of Life as a First Order Phase Transition
We demonstrate a phase transition from non-life to life, defined as non-replicating and replicating systems respectively, and characterize some of its dynamical properties. The transition is first order and demonstrates many characteristics one might expect from a newly emergent biosphere. During the phase transition the system experiences an explosive growth in diversity, with restructuring of both the extant replicator population and the environment. The observed dynamics have a natural information-theoretic interpretation, where the probability for the transition to occur depends on the mutual information shared between replicators and environment. Through the transition, the system undergoes a series of symmetry breaking transitions whereby the information content of replicators becomes increasingly distinct from that of their environment. Thus, the replicators that nucleate the transition in the non-life phase are often not those which are ultimately selected in the life phase. We discuss the implications of these results for understanding the emergence of life, and natural selection more broadly.
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