This paper presents a high-level conceptual framework to help orient the discussion and implementation of open-endedness in evolutionary systems. Drawing upon earlier work by Banzhaf et al., three different kinds of open-endedness are identified: exploratory, expansive, and transformational. These are characterised in terms of their relationship to the search space of phenotypic behaviours. A formalism is introduced to describe three key processes required for an evolutionary process: the generation of a phenotype from a genetic description, the evaluation of that phenotype, and the reproduction with variation of individuals according to their evaluation. The distinction is made between intrinsic and extrinsic implementations of these processes. A discussion then investigates how various interactions between these processes, and their modes of implementation, can lead to open-endedness. However, an important contribution of the paper is the demonstration that these considerations relate to exploratory open-endedness only. Conditions for the implementation of the more interesting kinds of open-endedness - expansive and transformational - are also discussed, emphasizing factors such as multiple domains of behaviour, transdomain bridges, and non-additive compositional systems. These factors relate not to the generic evolutionary properties of individuals and populations, but rather to the nature of the building blocks out of which individual organisms are constructed, and the laws and properties of the environment in which they exist. The paper ends with suggestions of how the framework can be used to categorise and compare the open-ended evolutionary potential of different systems, how it might guide the design of systems with greater capacity for open-ended evolution, and how it might be further improved.
翻译:本文件介绍了一个高级别的概念框架,以帮助指导进化系统中的开放性讨论和实施。根据Banzhaf等人先前的工作,确定了三种不同的开放性:探索性、扩展性、以及转变性。这些特征的特点是它们与探索性行为搜索空间的关系。采用了一种形式主义来描述进化过程所需的三个关键进程:从基因描述中生成一种开源型的开源型,对这种开源型的评估和根据个人评价的变化进行复制。区分了这些进程的内在和扩展性实施。然后进行讨论,研究这些进程及其实施模式之间的各种互动如何导致开放性。然而,本文件的一个重要贡献是表明这些考虑仅与探索性开放性有关。 还讨论了实施更有趣的开放性类型――开源型和转变型――的条件,根据个人的评价,强调行为、跨层桥梁、非扩展性指南的实施。然后,探讨这些进程及其实施方式如何导致这些过程之间的各种互动,而这些进化型体系和进化性结构的特性如何与个人之间,这些变化性结构的特性和结构的特性如何与进化性结构的特性之间,这些不同的结构的特性和结构结构的特性如何与个人之间,这些是不同的结构的特性的特性和结构结构的特性的特性和结构的特性和结构的特性的特性的特性和结构的特性和结构的特性和结构的特性。