An Introduction to Evolving Complex Systems
Biology and intelligence encompass complex systems that evolve over time.
There is the evolution of physical forms such as bodies and brains, but behind this visible evolution lies the concept of information and processing, which I believe are key to evolution through self-replication and selection.
This article views these complex systems from the perspective of the evolution of abstract entities like information and processing, including the relationship with the physical mediums that store information and the devices that implement processing.
Advancing this thought reveals that these collections form identities and feedback loops. Identities evolve as information, and feedback loops as processing, each evolving structure.
Thus, the overall structure is a nested system of micro-evolution of information and processing, and macro-evolution of identities and feedback loops.
Let’s take a closer look below.
Information, Medium, Recording / Processing, Devices, Implementation
Information is recorded on a material medium. Processing is executed on a physical device. A conceptual diagram of this structure is shown in Figure 1.
When the device is a general-purpose device that can change the content of processing based on information, it can perform processing according to the provided information. This information can be mere data, or something like programs or blueprints.
If the device is implemented to copy the given information, a processing that records the copy of the information onto another medium is executed.
Devices can also have the processing to implement another device based on given information like programs or blueprints. Through this processing, another device is implemented based on the information.
In this way, the same information is recorded on multiple mediums, and the same information-based processing is implemented in multiple devices. Also, a single medium can record multiple pieces of information, and a single device can implement multiple processes.
Examples of Mediums and Devices
Here are examples of mediums and devices.
Computers
In the world of computers, mediums are memory or storage, and devices are CPUs or GPUs. Information translates to data or programs.
Data or programs can be recorded on multiple memories or storages. The recording process is executed by CPUs or GPUs. The implementation of recording processes on CPUs or GPUs can also be done by another program.
Moreover, by implementing CPU or GPU processing with data or programs, various processes can be realized. The same data or programs can be used to implement processing on multiple CPUs or GPUs. Multiple CPUs or GPUs can be made to process according to data or programs through special programs.
Human Society
In human society, the human brain serves as both the medium and the device. Information translates to knowledge, experience, and expressions.
Knowledge, experience, and expressions can be copied among multiple humans. Special education or training might require humans like teachers or coaches. Teachers or coaches are implemented to perform education or training as recording processes by acquiring teaching or training methods.
Additionally, humans can perform various processes based on acquired or referenced knowledge, experience, and expressions. Multiple humans can perform the same processes based on the same knowledge, experience, and expressions.
Biology
In biology, DNA or RNA serves as the medium. Proteins or RNA are the devices. Specific proteins or RNA realize the recording process of copying information from DNA or RNA.
Proteins or RNA are implemented using parts of DNA’s genetic information. This allows proteins or RNA to perform diverse processes. Multiple proteins or RNA can perform the same process based on the same genetic information. The process of implementing proteins or RNA from DNA or RNA is also realized by proteins and RNA.
The Nature of Self-Replicating Information
As seen in these examples, information includes programs and data handled by computers, knowledge, experiences, and expressions held by humans, and genetic information in biology.
From the perspectives of the computer economy, human society, and biological ecosystems, it’s evident that information more suited to the situation tends to be recorded on more mediums for longer durations. Useful programs, or data that many people enjoy and find interesting, will likely be widely copied and utilized for a long time.
Similarly, knowledge of useful disciplines and technologies, experiences like wisdom and skills for living, and expressions that provide inspiration and joy, such as paintings, music, and dance, are all alike. Genetic information that has an advantage in interaction with nature and other organisms and high adaptability is also widely and enduringly passed down.
This acts similarly to natural selection in biology, showing that these types of information evolve over time. Evolved information can exist longer and more widely, but it can also be displaced by more advanced information. Overall, this leads to a diversification of information in harmony.
Although information itself does not possess will or intent, its evolution within this mechanism appears as if it has a nature to sustain itself more widely and for longer. Objectively viewed, within this mechanism, information can be said to have the property of self-replication.
The Nature of Self-Replicating Processes
Information alone cannot do anything; it always requires processing. Processing is necessary to copy information or to implement different processes based on information.
Processing is not merely data but something dynamic that involves the passage of time. It becomes processing only when implemented in a device and operated.
While we have looked at the evolution and self-replicating nature from the perspective of information, the same can be considered from the side of processing.
This means, from the perspectives of the computer economy, human society, and biological ecosystems, processing that is more suited to the situation tends to be executed on more devices over longer periods. From this viewpoint, processing too undergoes natural selection, evolving and diversifying over time. Objectively, in this mechanism, processing also possesses the nature of self-replication.
Proliferation and Evolution of Mediums and Devices
In the mechanism where information and processing self-replicate, mediums for recording information and devices for implementing processing are necessary.
Thus far, the discussion has implicitly assumed that ample mediums and devices exist, focusing on information and processing. However, without sufficient quantities of mediums and devices, information and processing cannot proliferate.
Therefore, in the mechanism of proliferation for information and processing, there must also be a mechanism for increasing mediums and devices.
In biology, DNA or RNA serves as the medium, and it’s impossible to separate the medium from the information. The process of copying genetic information records it while manufacturing the DNA medium itself.
Similarly, devices such as RNA and proteins cannot be separated from processing. Devices like RNA and proteins are manufactured while processing is implemented.
Thus, in biology, the proliferation of information and processing signifies the proliferation of mediums and devices.
In contrast, humans possess innate abilities to record information and implement processing but can also acquire information and implement processing postnatally. Computers, too, come with built-in information and processing but can be supplemented with more information and processing later.
The proliferation of this later-added information and processing does not directly cause the proliferation of humans or computers as mediums or devices. Humans increase through biological reproduction, and computers increase through industrial manufacturing.
However, the emergence of information and processing that makes it easier for humans as biological entities to proliferate can lead to an increase in population. The emergence of economically valuable information and processing can lead to an increase in the number of computers. Thus, the evolution of information and processing indirectly contributes to the proliferation of mediums and devices.
Moreover, the performance and properties of mediums and devices change and evolve through proliferation and selection, leading to gradual evolution towards more stable information recording and more efficient processing.
Not only that, but there can also be discontinuous evolution, such as the emergence of brains from DNA and proteins and then computers.
Physical Constraints
If there were no physical constraints and mediums and devices were infinitely available, information and processing could proliferate indefinitely. In such a scenario, both useful and less useful information and processes could continue to exist and multiply.
However, in reality, physical constraints exist, and there are limits to mediums and devices. Although mediums and devices can proliferate, they still require resources, energy, and physical space to exist, all of which are subject to constraints.
These constraints limit the proliferation of information and processing. As evolution brings forth information and processing that are better suited for persistence and proliferation, other information and processes must reduce in scale and eventually disappear.
Feedback Loops
Self-replicating information and processes form feedback loops through recording and implementation processes. Numerous feedback loops exist, and those whose balance of involved information and processing is stable support stable self-replication.
Unbalanced feedback loops will be naturally selected against. Therefore, feedback loops themselves evolve, with more balanced and stable ones prevailing.
Identity
The characteristics of information and processes involved in a feedback loop may change due to evolution, disrupting the balance. Additionally, the influence of external information and processing evolution and the impact of physical constraints may reduce the scale of some information and processes involved in the loop, causing imbalance.
When the balance is disrupted, the feedback loop’s ability to support self-replication also collapses. During evolution, feedback loops that are prone to imbalance are selected against.
Having mechanisms that tolerate changes that do not disrupt the balance of the feedback loop while eliminating changes that do disrupt the balance is advantageous in evolution.
Moreover, it is advantageous for a feedback loop to be able to adapt and maintain balance in response to the evolution of external information and processes.
Thus, distinguishing between internal and external, strengthening internal control, and adapting to external changes are crucial for the survival of the feedback loop. This ability, in the sense of distinguishing self from others, can be considered the identity of the feedback loop.
Identity, too, evolves through natural selection.
Identity and Feedback Loops
Identity can be considered a type of information, and feedback loops can be seen as processes. This reintroduces the concept of self-replicating information and processes.
It’s more accurate to view identity not as being stored in a single medium but as distributed and maintained by a group of mediums participating in that identity.
Hence, while identity is information that can be partially replicated, replicating it in its entirety is challenging.
Similarly, feedback loops are not processed by a single device but by multiple devices working together. Therefore, while similar feedback loops can exist, implementing an identical feedback loop is challenging.
As a result, identities, while sharing similar properties, proliferate in slightly different forms across different groups of mediums, and feedback loops, also sharing similar properties, proliferate in slightly different forms across different groups of devices. Additionally, identities and feedback loops continually change in response to internal and external micro-changes in information and processes.
Completeness of Information and Processes
This implies that identities and feedback loops are unlikely to maintain the exact same state over time or through replication. This suggests a concept of completeness, or degree thereof, for self-replicating information and processes.
Information recorded on a single medium or processes implemented on a single device can have relatively high completeness, dependent on the properties of the medium or device. However, information like identity, recorded across multiple mediums, and processes like feedback loops, implemented across multiple devices, find it difficult to maintain high completeness.
In Conclusion
This situation reflects the reality that, even within the same region, no two individuals possess identical personalities, and ecosystems within similar forests differ from one forest to another. It also reflects how the mood of the same person can change from day to day and how forests constantly change their appearance.
This comparison suggests that it’s more appropriate to consider the human brain not as a single medium or device but as a multitude of mediums and devices.
Within a forest, numerous feedback loops and identities are formed by the living organisms, which maintain complex balances with each other, allowing the forest to grow stably.
Similarly, it can be understood that within a single human brain, numerous feedback loops and identities are formed, complexly balancing each other to form a single personality.
Additionally, in my personal research, I explore the origins of life from a systems engineering perspective.
While this article focused on DNA, RNA, and proteins in biology, I believe these concepts can also be applied to analyze the origins of life before the appearance of biological entities.
DNA, RNA, and proteins can be considered mediums and devices with very high completeness of information and processes. I suspect that in the process leading up to the emergence of life, information and processes with lower completeness self-replicated, leading to the evolution of mediums and devices. This evolution culminated in the appearance of DNA, RNA, and proteins, which then formed life.
Thus, by analyzing the evolution from inanimate to living entities at the origins of life using the concepts organized in this article — information, medium, process, device, identity, feedback loops, and their degrees of completeness — I believe new insights can be gained.
