An Evolutionary Process Without Variation and Selection

Abstract

A central tenet of evolutionary theory is that it requires variation upon which selection can act. We describe a means of attaining cumulative, adaptive, open-ended change that requires neither variation nor selective exclusion, and that can occur in the absence of generations (i.e., no explicit birth or death). This second evolutionary process occurs through the assimilation, restructuring, and extrusion of products into the environment by identical, interacting Reflexively Autocatalytic and Food set-generated (RAF) networks. Since there is no self-assembly code, it is more haphazard than natural selection, and there is no discarding of acquired traits (a signature characteristic of natural selection). We refer to this more primitive process evolutionary process as Self–Other Reorganisation because it involves internal self-organising and self-maintaining processes within entities, as well as interaction between entities. In the extreme, it can work with just one entity but it differs from learning because it can operate in groups of entities and produce adaptive change across generations. We suggest that this more primitive process is operative during the initial stage of an evolutionary process, and that it is responsible for both the origin and early evolution of both organic life, and human culture. In cultural evolution, this ‘evolution without variation’ process can increase homogeneity amongst members of a group and thereby foster group identity and cohesion.

An Autocatalytic Network Model of Conceptual Change

“…This, in turn, enables us to model how new understandings emerge out of available MRs, identifying the required precursor ideas for the emergence of a given idea, and the mental operations carried out by a given individual that result in that new idea. At the level of modeling lineages of cultural descent, the distinction between foodset and foodset-derived makes it possible to tag novel insights with their point of origin, track cumulative change within (and across) individuals, and develop cultural evolutionary lineages (Gabora & Steel, 2017, 2020a, 2021a, as well as follow trajectories in cognitive development step by step.…”

“…These features make RAFs uniquely suited to model how new structure grows out of earlier structure, i.e., generative network growth (Steel et al, 2019). Such generativity may result in phase transitions to a network that is self-sustaining and self-organizing (Hordijk & Steel, 2004Mossel & Steel, 2005), as well as potentially able to self-replicate (in a relatively haphazard manner, without reliance on a self-assembly code), and evolve, i.e., exhibit cumulative, adaptive, open-ended change (Gabora & Steel, 2021a;. Therefore, RAFs have been used to model the origins of evolutionary processes, both biological-the origin of life (OOL) (Hordijk, Hein, & Steel, 2010;Xavier, Hordijk, Kauffman, Steel, & Martin, 2020)-and cultural-the origin of culture (OOC), or more specifically, the kind of cognitive structure capable of generating cumulative, adaptive, open-ended innovation (Gabora & Steel, 2017, 2020a, 2020b, 2021bSteel, Xavier, & Huson, 2020).…”

The allure of the unknown in a tamed, mapped, and homogenized world

“…The authors claim that the existence of imaginary worlds is not explainable in terms of existing theories of cultural evolution. We suggest, however, that they are explainable in terms of the Self-Other Re-organization (SOR) theory of cultural evolution (Gabora, 2019; Smith, Gabora, & Gardner-O'Kearny, 2018; for mathematical models of SOR, see Gabora & Steel, 2017, 2020a, 2020b, 2021). SOC postulates that culture evolves, not through a Darwinian process of competitive exclusion and survival of the fittest, but through a largely cooperative process of internal self-maintenance and restructuring within individuals, interleaved with social interaction between individuals.…”

Beyond two modes of thought: A quantum model of how three cognitive variables yield conceptual change

“… 1 A related distinction to the distinction between concrete and abstract is the distinction between foodset vs. foodset-derived concepts in autocatalytic models of cognition and cultural evolution (Gabora and Steel, 2017 , 2020a , b , 2021a , b ; Gabora et al, 2022 ; Ganesh and Gabora, 2022a , b ). Note however, that there is an important difference.…”