A philosophical perspective on a metatheory of biological evolution
pp. 513-532
in: Shyam Wuppuluri, Francisco A. Doria (eds), The map and the territory, Berlin, Springer, 2018Abstract
We discuss a mathematical metatheory of biological evolution that employs a version of information theory called algorithmic information theory (Chaitin 1987). As indicated by "meta," here the tension between map and territory or between theory and phenomena is particularly acute. The normal information-theoretic view of evolution is that it increases the information in the genome about the environment until the organisms are fully adapted to their environment, at which point evolution stagnates until there are changes in the environment. However, metabiology focuses on unending biological creativity and on the consequences of viewing DNA as software, which leads to a completely different information-theoretic perspective on evolution, but still incorporating information from the environment.