Compositional evolution: the impact of sex, symbiosis and modularity on the gradualist framework of evolution

摘要

Watson guides us into an interdisciplinary field between evolutionary biology and evolutionary computation and extends our existing gradualist framework of evolution to compositional evolution. By compositional evolution Watson means evolutionary processes involving the combination of semi-independent genetic subsystems. For example sex, formation of hybrid species, gene transfer between existing individuals (rather than from parents to children, known as horizontal or lateral gene transfer), individuals having complete sets of chromosomes from different species (allopoly-ploidy, as in some plant hybrids) and the genetic integration of symbionts (symbiogenesis). Or indeed other mechanisms that encapsulate a group of simple things into a complex one. He suggests compositional evolution provides a way to solve more complex problems. Watson takes care that anybody with some experience in evolutionary computation can read and understand his book without problems. However in some chapters one must bear in mind that it is written with a different mindset than other evolutionary computation books.