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Article

Natural Induction: Spontaneous Adaptive Organisation without Natural Selection

by
Christopher L. Buckley
1,
Tim Lewens
2,
Michael Levin
3,
Beren Millidge
1,
Alexander Tschantz
1 and
Richard A. Watson
4,*
1
Department of Informatics, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9RH, UK
2
History and Philosophy of Science, Cambridge University, Cambridge CB2 1TN, UK
3
Department of Biology, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155, USA
4
Electronics and Computer Science/Institute for Life Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Entropy 2024, 26(9), 765; https://doi.org/10.3390/e26090765
Submission received: 31 July 2024 / Revised: 19 August 2024 / Accepted: 27 August 2024 / Published: 6 September 2024
(This article belongs to the Section Entropy and Biology)

Abstract

Evolution by natural selection is believed to be the only possible source of spontaneous adaptive organisation in the natural world. This places strict limits on the kinds of systems that can exhibit adaptation spontaneously, i.e., without design. Physical systems can show some properties relevant to adaptation without natural selection or design. (1) The relaxation, or local energy minimisation, of a physical system constitutes a natural form of optimisation insomuch as it finds locally optimal solutions to the frustrated forces acting on it or between its components. (2) When internal structure ‘gives way’ or accommodates a pattern of forcing on a system, this constitutes learning insomuch, as it can store, recall, and generalise past configurations. Both these effects are quite natural and general, but in themselves insufficient to constitute non-trivial adaptation. However, here we show that the recurrent interaction of physical optimisation and physical learning together results in significant spontaneous adaptive organisation. We call this adaptation by natural induction. The effect occurs in dynamical systems described by a network of viscoelastic connections subject to occasional disturbances. When the internal structure of such a system accommodates slowly across many disturbances and relaxations, it spontaneously learns to preferentially visit solutions of increasingly greater quality (exceptionally low energy). We show that adaptation by natural induction thus produces network organisations that improve problem-solving competency with experience (without supervised training or system-level reward). We note that the conditions for adaptation by natural induction, and its adaptive competency, are different from those of natural selection. We therefore suggest that natural selection is not the only possible source of spontaneous adaptive organisation in the natural world.
Keywords: learning; optimisation; adaptation; self-organisation; evolution learning; optimisation; adaptation; self-organisation; evolution

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MDPI and ACS Style

Buckley, C.L.; Lewens, T.; Levin, M.; Millidge, B.; Tschantz, A.; Watson, R.A. Natural Induction: Spontaneous Adaptive Organisation without Natural Selection. Entropy 2024, 26, 765. https://doi.org/10.3390/e26090765

AMA Style

Buckley CL, Lewens T, Levin M, Millidge B, Tschantz A, Watson RA. Natural Induction: Spontaneous Adaptive Organisation without Natural Selection. Entropy. 2024; 26(9):765. https://doi.org/10.3390/e26090765

Chicago/Turabian Style

Buckley, Christopher L., Tim Lewens, Michael Levin, Beren Millidge, Alexander Tschantz, and Richard A. Watson. 2024. "Natural Induction: Spontaneous Adaptive Organisation without Natural Selection" Entropy 26, no. 9: 765. https://doi.org/10.3390/e26090765

APA Style

Buckley, C. L., Lewens, T., Levin, M., Millidge, B., Tschantz, A., & Watson, R. A. (2024). Natural Induction: Spontaneous Adaptive Organisation without Natural Selection. Entropy, 26(9), 765. https://doi.org/10.3390/e26090765

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