Evolution and non-equilibrium physics. A study of the Tangled Nature Model

Abstract

We argue that the stochastic dynamics of interacting agents which replicate, mutate and die constitutes a non-equilibrium physical process akin to aging in complex materials. Specifically, our study uses extensive computer simulations of the Tangled Nature Model (TNM) of biological evolution to show that punctuated equilibria successively generated by the model's dynamics have increasing entropy and are separated by increasing entropic barriers. We further show that these states are organized in a hierarchy and that limiting the values of possible interactions to a finite interval leads to stationary fluctuations within a component of the latter. A coarse-grained description based on the temporal statistics of quakes, the events leading from one component of the hierarchy to the next, accounts for the logarithmic growth of the population and the decaying rate of change of macroscopic variables. Finally, we question the role of fitness in large scale evolution models and speculate on the possible evolutionary role of rejuvenation and memory effects.

6 pages, 6 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Punctuated equilibria and 1/f noise in a biological coevolution model with individual-based dynamics
• Record dynamics and the observed temperature plateau in the magnetic creep rate of type II superconductors
• Network properties, species abundance and evolution in a model of evolutionary ecology
• The species-area relationship and evolution
• An individual-based predator-prey model for biological coevolution: Fluctuations, stability, and community structure

Cited by in corpus (12)

• Cultural Evolution as a Non-Stationary Stochastic Process
• A Gaian Habitable Zone
• Mesoscopic real space structures in aging spin-glasses: the Edwards-Anderson model
• Tangled Worldview Model of Opinion Dynamics
• Decision Making on Fitness Landscapes
• The Tangled Nature Model of evolutionary dynamics reconsidered: structural and dynamical effects of trait inheritance
• Tangled Nature: A model of emergent structure and temporal mode among co-evolving agents
• Record dynamics of evolving metastable systems: theory and applications
• A Biotic Habitable Zone: Impacts of Adaptation in Biotic Temperature Regulation
• Relating high dimensional stochastic complex systems to low-dimensional intermittency
• Tangent map intermittency as an approximate analysis of intermittency in a high dimensional fully stochastic dynamical system: The Tangled Nature model
• Selection Principles for Gaia