Humanity can use evolution to its advantage.
Evolution is a well-proven biological process.
Its main promoter was Charles Darwin (1809-1882), the famous biologist who sailed the seas aboard the Beagle, describing an enormous number of animal species that he encountered during his sea voyages. These investigations of Darwin gave rise to his famous book “The Origin of Species” , where he proposed his evolutionary theory.
Today we know much more about how evolutionary processes work, reaching the point where we can use them to our advantage when advancing in certain areas of knowledge or even to improve our computer programs.
The foundations of evolutionary processes
Before commenting on artificial evolution, it would be convenient to clearly explain what evolution is . Evolution is what we call the changes that occur in the different species of living beings, which allow them to better adapt to the environments they inhabit as generations pass.
Evolution occurs for two main reasons that we summarize below:
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1. Genetic mutations
The first reason is that DNA, the genetic material that we use to pass our information to offspring, in addition to being the instructions that cells follow for their development and function, is not perfectly transmitted from one generation to the next. We call these genetic changes mutations, and they occur randomly .
The randomness of mutations means that the changes they cause will also be random. The vast majority of mutations will be neutral, that is, they will not produce a tangible effect on the life of the individual. There are also negative mutations, which make those who carry them have a lower ability to survive or reproduce.
But there will be a percentage of positive mutations, which will improve the survival and reproduction capabilities of the species . These positive, negative, and neutral changes have the ability to become common to virtually the entire population under the right conditions. If a genetic change is extremely positive for the carrier, it is more likely to be passed on to offspring.
2. Selective pressure
Every environment exerts what we call “selective pressure” on the organisms that comprise it. In an environment with few resources, for example, those individuals who are best able to obtain them will be the ones to prosper most easily.
We can call selective pressure any pressure, regardless of its magnitude, that favors certain behaviors or characteristics over others .
Selection pressure is an external “force” that guides the evolutionary process. As Darwin said, those individuals and species that are best adapted to their environment (or what is the same, to its selective pressures) will be the ones that, in due time, will end up displacing those that are less adapted.
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Definition and uses of artificial evolution
Once we have established in a basic way what an evolutionary process is, we can delve into what artificial evolution means and what we can use it for. As we can imagine, artificial evolution differs from natural evolution because it is directed by the human being .
We should also comment on the term “artificial selection”, which is closely linked with artificial evolution. This refers to the processes through which humans exert selective pressure on different species to obtain a specific result.
A clear example of artificial selection would be the selective breeding of dogs so that they perform different tasks (from hunting to pulling sleds) . The different breeds of dogs end up adapting to the tasks for which they are required, since humans decide to mate the dogs with the best characteristics between them. It is humans who decide which genes are passed on to offspring, generating an artificial selective pressure.
Artificial evolution can refer both to these artificial selection processes (where it is the human who decides the course of the evolution of the species), and to other technological processes , where the different evolutionary dynamics of mutation and selection are used for optimization. of systems. This is used, for example, to improve artificial intelligence or find more effective biopharmaceuticals.
How is it used in research?
In research, it can be used, for example, to observe how a population (usually of microorganisms, which evolve faster due to their high rate of reproduction) responds genetically and/or phenotypically to specific changes in the environment, which have been decided by the researcher. beforehand.
It can also be used, as we have already mentioned, to find specific molecular products. Let’s say we have a large collection of different bacteria and we know that they are capable of digesting, for example, the plastic from the rings of cans . If we wanted to improve its ability to perform this function, we could use an artificial evolution experiment.
This type of experiment to optimize certain characteristics of microbes requires two consecutive phases that will be repeated until the desired results are obtained:
- Analysis of the capabilities of microbes to perform the function we seek to optimize
- Application of artificial selective pressure (we eliminate the microbes with the worst results from the group and replace them with better trained bacteria)
When we have found microbes that perform the desired function adequately for our purposes, we will end the artificial evolution experiment. The usefulness of this type of system is enormous, but it requires a great knowledge of the genetic and phenotypic characteristics of the organisms used to know how to apply the optimal selective pressure.
Applications for digital technology
In the world of software and artificial intelligence, the concept of artificial evolution is also used. An example is the so-called genetic or evolutionary algorithms, which are used to improve the problem-solving capabilities of a program in the face of a specific problem .
Below we leave you an interesting video, where genetic algorithms are used to, imitating the processes of evolution, ensure that digital bodies that have not been taught to wander end up finding the necessary mechanical solution to achieve it.
The applications of artificial evolution are wide and affect many types of knowledge and technologies. Evolution is, after all, a complicated process of optimizing living beings to their environment, so we can use this type of evolutionary process to optimize complex systems and find solutions in a much simpler way.
Bibliographic references
- P. Husbands, I. Harvey, D. Cliff, G. Miller (1997) Artificial Evolution: A New Path for Artificial Intelligence?, Brain and Cognition, Volume 34, Issue 1, Pages 130-159, ISSN 0278-2626, https ://doi.org/10.1006/brcg.1997.0910.
- John M. Gibson (1989) Simulated evolution and artificial selection, Biosystems, Volume 23, Issues 2–3, Pages 219-228, ISSN 0303-2647, https://doi.org/10.1016/0303-2647(89)90027 -0.
To the classic question “what do you do?” I always answer “basically I am a psychologist”. In fact, my academic training has revolved around the psychology of development, education and community, a field of study influenced my volunteer activities, as well as my first work experiences in personal services.