Conflict-driven evolution 2

Continuing this post. Comments on the citations below. There are short, explosive innovations of complexity. Evolution then settles into a much longer period of adaption that weeds out the maladaptive complex forms, as well as the maladaptive elements of those forms that survive. Complexity per se is not the sole driving force of evolution.

 

The hierarchical complexity that arises during those explosive periods is not of the kind that expresses as self-similar fractals, since each level of complexity "substantially differ[s]." Instead the hierarchical levels are linked though the MTEs (major transitions in evolution), which sound more like mutations that break with the additive transcend and include aspect of evolution and its algorithmic modeling. And as I've long maintained, a more accurate modeling of the process will require new math not yet created.

 

Perhaps most interesting is that MTEs are motivated by the conflict between a host and a parasite which creates the mutation. In our current crisis that could be COVID and its variants, which might cause a genetic mutation in humanity as we struggle to incorporate it yet defend against its harmful aspects. Homo Covidians?

 

Wolf, Y.; Koonin, E. (2013). "Genome reduction as the dominant mode of evolution." Bioessays 35: 829–837.

 
Koonin, E.; Wolf, Y.; Katsnelson, M. (2021). "Conflict driven evolution." New Horizons in Evolution. Cambridge MA: Academic Press. pp. 77 - 96