Adaptation is not just improvement over time
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Published version
Author(s)
McGregor, S
Mediano, PAM
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The idea that an agent's actions can impact its actual long-term survival is a very appealing one, underlying influential treatments such as Di Paolo's (2005). However, this presents a tension with understanding the agent and environment as possessing specific objective physical microstates. More specifically, we show that such an approach leads to undesirable outcomes, for example, all organisms being maladaptive on average. We suggest that this problematic intuition of improvement over time may stem from Bayesian inference. We illustrate our arguments using a recent model of autopoietic agency in a model protocell, showing the limitations of previous approaches in this model and specific instantiations of Bayesian inference by ignorant observers in certain scenarios.
Date Issued
2018
Online Publication Date
2024-11-11T10:35:39Z
Date Acceptance
2018-11-01
ISSN
1064-5462
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press
Start Page
182
End Page
198
Journal / Book Title
Artificial Life
Volume
24
Issue
3
Copyright Statement
© 2018 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Simon McGregor, Pedro A. M. Mediano; Adaptation Is Not Just Improvement over Time. Artif Life 2018; 24 (3): 182–198. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/artl_a_00268
(https://direct.mit.edu/artl)
(https://direct.mit.edu/artl)
Identifier
https://direct.mit.edu/artl/article/24/3/182/2902/Adaptation-Is-Not-Just-Improvement-over-Time
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2018-11-01