Salthe essay
I was sent this file by Stanley Salthe
http://eonix-papers.com/docs/NatselinComplexityALife.pdf
Natural Selection in Relation
to Complexity
Stanley N. Salthe*
City University of New York
Binghamton University
Keywords
Complexity, genetic drift, natural selection,
Abstract
Structural complexity characterizes our representations of dissipative structures.
As a mechanistic concept, when referred to
natural systems it generates perplexity in the face of logically sound
models. Natural selection is a simple mechanistic concept, whose logic
is well exemplified in genetic algorithms. While biological traits and
functions do appear to have been subjected to selective culling,
current neo-Darwinian theory is unable to account for the evolution
of traits or functions when many of these are taken as the separate
objects of independent fitness functions. Soft selection, acting in a
phenotypically holistic manner, does model selection acting upon
structurally complex systems with many traits and functions, but does
not account for the evolution of specific traits or functions. It is
further suggested that selection cannot be other than a weak force
in the early, generative stages of complex life histories, and that this
is a good thing, preserving their generativity. I conclude that
natural selection theory by itself cannot account for increases in
structural complexity.