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Originally shared by Conrad ParkerEvolvability is the ability to evolve: the better able you are to adapt to changes in your environment, the more likely you are to survive. It is often considered as a kind of meta-level adaptation, where evolvability itself is a trait which develops against ongoing selection pressure.
This paper instead suggests that evolvability can increase in the absence of selection pressure. Even when there are no changes to the environment, the genetic make-up drifts in favour of individuals which are more likely to occupy new niches, were they to occur.
Rather than being an adaptation which was fought and died for and was itself chosen by natural selection, the whole system of evolution is biased towards evolvability. Take that entropy!
This paper instead suggests that evolvability can increase in the absence of selection pressure. Even when there are no changes to the environment, the genetic make-up drifts in favour of individuals which are more likely to occupy new niches, were they to occur.
Rather than being an adaptation which was fought and died for and was itself chosen by natural selection, the whole system of evolution is biased towards evolvability. Take that entropy!
Evolvability Is Inevitable: Increasing Evolvability without the Pressure to Adapt
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Reshared by: Carlos Portela
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...and new organs and behaviors to scratch them.