Generation of information and complexity: Different forms of learning and innovation: A simple mechanism of learning

W hat is the difference in evolutionary optimization of molecules, viruses, bacteria, plants, animals, and man? There are thousands of features in which the elements of the optimization process differ, in particular, the degree of complexity increases tremendously from molecules to man. The Darwinian principle of multiplication with inheritance, variation, and selection, however, applies to all of them. This is true despite the fact that the mechanistic details can be very different: RNA molecules and viruses are replicated by a complementary mechanism—the plus strand is the template for the synthesis of the minus strand and vice versa—bacteria and all other organisms duplicate their genetic material by means of direct double strand replication, and finally the higher species undergo a complex process of development from the fertilized egg to the adult organism. Inheritance of the genetic information for a repertoire of properties is an indispensable prerequisite and it exists in all the cases mentioned above. Needless to say, inheritance of properties in molecules is ridiculously simple compared to man. Variation is again different for the different systems and may be the result of simple mutation as in asexual species or a combination of recombination and mutation for sexual reproduction [1]. From the point of mechanistic details molecules and man have indeed very little in common. Selection, eventually, is again in action on the level of populations correcting the overshooting of growth by adjustment to the carrying capacity of the ecosystem. The power of the Darwinian principle is its insensitivity to changes in mechanistic details. Otherwise, Darwin would have failed miserably in case the mechanism of inheritance mattered, because he believed most of his life in “panspermia” and therefore got this part of his concept completely wrong. In summary, Darwin’s insight revealed a principle that operates on the population level and at the same There are thousands of features in which the elements of the optimization process differ, in particular, the degree of complexity increases tremendously from molecules to man. PETER SCHUSTER