A Darwin machine (a 1987 coinage by
William H. Calvin
William H. Calvin (born April 30, 1939) is an American theoretical neurophysiology, neurophysiologist and professor at the University of Washington in Seattle. He is known for popularizing neuroscience and evolutionary biology, including the hyb ...
, by
analogy to a
Turing machine
A Turing machine is a mathematical model of computation describing an abstract machine that manipulates symbols on a strip of tape according to a table of rules. Despite the model's simplicity, it is capable of implementing any computer algori ...
) is a machine that, like a Turing machine, involves an
iteration
Iteration is the repetition of a process in order to generate a (possibly unbounded) sequence of outcomes. Each repetition of the process is a single iteration, and the outcome of each iteration is then the starting point of the next iteration. ...
process that yields a high-quality result, but, whereas a Turing machine uses
logic
Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premise ...
, the Darwin machine uses rounds of variation,
selection
Selection may refer to:
Science
* Selection (biology), also called natural selection, selection in evolution
** Sex selection, in genetics
** Mate selection, in mating
** Sexual selection in humans, in human sexuality
** Human mating strateg ...
, and
inheritance
Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Officia ...
.
In its original connotation, a Darwin machine is any process that
bootstraps quality by using all of the six essential features of a Darwinian process: A ''pattern'' is ''copied'' with ''variations'', where populations of one variant pattern ''compete'' with another population, their relative success biased by a ''multifaceted environment'' (
natural selection
Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations. Cha ...
) so that winners predominate in producing the further variants of the next generation (Darwin's ''inheritance principle'').
More loosely, a Darwin machine is a process that uses some subset of the Darwinian essentials, typically
natural selection
Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations. Cha ...
to create a non-reproducing pattern, as in
neural Darwinism
Neural Darwinism is a biological, and more specifically Darwinian and selectionist, approach to understanding global brain function, originally proposed by American biologist, researcher and Nobel-Prize recipient Gerald Maurice Edelman (July 1, ...
. Many aspects of
neural development use overgrowth followed by pruning to a pattern, but the resulting pattern does not itself create further copies.
''Darwin machine'' has been used multiple times to name computer programs after
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended ...
.
See also
*
Artificial life
Artificial life (often abbreviated ALife or A-Life) is a field of study wherein researchers examine systems related to natural life, its processes, and its evolution, through the use of simulations with computer models, robotics, and biochemistry ...
*
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech r ...
*"
Darwin among the Machines
"Darwin among the Machines" is an article published in ''The Press'' newspaper on 13 June 1863 in Christchurch, New Zealand, which references the work of Charles Darwin in the title. Written by Samuel Butler but signed '' Cellarius'' (q.v.), the ...
"
*
Evolutionary computation
*
Evolutionary algorithm
In computational intelligence (CI), an evolutionary algorithm (EA) is a subset of evolutionary computation, a generic population-based metaheuristic optimization algorithm. An EA uses mechanisms inspired by biological evolution, such as reproduct ...
*
Genetic algorithm
*
Universal Darwinism
Universal Darwinism, also known as generalized Darwinism, universal selection theory, or Darwinian metaphysics, is a variety of approaches that extend the theory of Darwinism beyond its original domain of biological evolution on Earth. Universal ...
References and external links
*
William H. Calvin
William H. Calvin (born April 30, 1939) is an American theoretical neurophysiology, neurophysiologist and professor at the University of Washington in Seattle. He is known for popularizing neuroscience and evolutionary biology, including the hyb ...
(1987)
"The brain as a Darwin Machine" ''Nature'' 330:33-34.
*
William H. Calvin
William H. Calvin (born April 30, 1939) is an American theoretical neurophysiology, neurophysiologist and professor at the University of Washington in Seattle. He is known for popularizing neuroscience and evolutionary biology, including the hyb ...
(1997
"The Six Essentials?Minimal Requirements for the Darwinian Bootstrapping of Quality," ''Journal of Memetics'' 1:1.
*
George B. Dyson (1998), ''Darwin Among the Machines: The Evolution of Global Intelligence'' (Perseus 1997)(1998) .
* J. M. Manier (1996), ''Reason and Instinct (Robert Wright's The Moral Animal and Henry Plotkin's Darwin, Machines and the Nature of Knowledge)''. THEORY AND PSYCHOLOGY. 6 (2): 347–348. ISSN 0959-3543
* Henry Plotkin (1994), ''Darwin Machines and the Nature of Knowledge'' (Harvard University Press.
* Henry Plotkin & Nicholas S. Thompson (1995), ''Darwin Machines and the Nature of Knowledge''. ''Contemporary Psychology''. 40 (12), 1179.
* E. A. Smith (1995), ''Darwin Machines and the Nature of Knowledge (Henry C. Plotkin)''. ''Politics and the Life Sciences : the Journal of the Association for Politics and the Life Sciences''. 14 (2), 296. ISSN 0730-9384
History of artificial intelligence
Cybernetics
Emergence
Evolution
{{artificial-intelligence-stub