ArticleScientific reports2017
Formal Definitions of Unbounded Evolution and Innovation Reveal Universal Mechanisms for Open-Ended Evolution in Dynamical Systems.
Article in Scientific reports, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed.
- Characterizing open-ended evolution through undecidability mechanisms in random Boolean networks.NPJ systems biology and applications · 2026Article
- Bounding phenotype transition probabilities via conditional complexity.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2025Article
- Computational capacity of life in relation to the universe.Science advances · 2025Article
- On the salient limitations of the methods of assembly theory and their classification of molecular biosignatures.NPJ systems biology and applications · 2024Review
- Article
- Exploring Simplicity Bias in 1D Dynamical Systems.Entropy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- On the roles of function and selection in evolving systems.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Predicting phenotype transition probabilities via conditional algorithmic probability approximations.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2022Article
- Emergence and algorithmic information dynamics of systems and observers.Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences · 2022Article
- Searching for Life, Mindful of Lyfe's Possibilities.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Self-replication of a quantum artificial organism driven by single-photon pulses.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Hidden Concepts in the History and Philosophy of Origins-of-Life Studies: a Workshop Report.Origins of life and evolution of the biosphere : the journal of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life · 2019Review
- Elastic Multi-scale Mechanisms: Computation and Biological Evolution.Journal of molecular evolution · 2018Article
- Re-conceptualizing the origins of life.Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences · 2017Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
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Abstract
Open-ended evolution (OEE) is relevant to a variety of biological, artificial and technological systems, but has been challenging to reproduce in silico. Most theoretical efforts focus on key aspects of open-ended evolution as it appears in biology. We recast the problem as a more general one in dynamical systems theory, providing simple criteria for open-ended evolution based on two hallmark features: unbounded evolution and innovation. We define unbounded evolution as patterns that are non-repeating within the expected Poincare recurrence time of an isolated system, and innovation as trajectories not observed in isolated systems. As a case study, we implement novel variants of cellular automata (CA) where the update rules are allowed to vary with time in three alternative ways. Each is capable of generating conditions for open-ended evolution, but vary in their ability to do so. We find that state-dependent dynamics, regarded as a hallmark of life, statistically out-performs other candidate mechanisms, and is the only mechanism to produce open-ended evolution in a scalable manner, essential to the notion of ongoing evolution. This analysis suggests a new framework for unifying mechanisms for generating OEE with features distinctive to life and its artifacts, with broad applicability to biological and artificial systems.
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