Abstract
We discuss a mathematical metatheory of biological evolution that employs a version of information theory called algorithmic information theory (Chaitin 1987). As indicated by “meta,” here the tension between map and territory or between theory and phenomena is particularly acute. The normal information-theoretic view of evolution is that it increases the information in the genome about the environment until the organisms are fully adapted to their environment, at which point evolution stagnates until there are changes in the environment. However, metabiology focuses on unending biological creativity and on the consequences of viewing DNA as software, which leads to a completely different information-theoretic perspective on evolution, but still incorporating information from the environment.
Talk given by the first author at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, March 2016. Video in YouTube; search for “chaitin” and “nanyang.” This work is based on the first author’s 2009 UFRJ doctoral thesis on permeable, pluralistic epistemology and mimetic concept migration, and on her UFRJ post-doc research analyzing metabiology using the interdisciplinary methodology developed in her thesis.
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Chaitin, V.M.F.G., Chaitin, G.J. (2018). A Philosophical Perspective on a Metatheory of Biological Evolution. In: Wuppuluri, S., Doria, F. (eds) The Map and the Territory. The Frontiers Collection. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72478-2_29
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72478-2_29
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