A NEW CONCEPT OF DEVELOPMENTAL AND EVOLUTIONARY ADAPTATION

A new approach, formulated in terms of a new model, is introduced to explain the development and evolution of complex adaptive systems. The approach argues that the emergence of complex patterns must be controlled by special regulatory genes which are themselves regulated by something as powerful computationally as an expert production-system. Furthermore, the production-system itself evolves adaptively through a relaxation of "thermodynamic tension". A network related to a neural network model, with some of its units being special developmental regulatory genes, is specified as an appropriate description of the adaptive complex system. © 1991.