Group selection, multilevel selection, and the origins of order - an instruction-centered model

Pavel Pelikán

Čtvrteční seminář CTS

This talk proposes a conceptual model of evolutionary and developmental processes as a source of insights into the old, but still controversial issues of group selection, multilevel selection, and the origins of order. Its pillars are two elementary principles of information-processing – one linking information to choices, and one pointing out the need for basic instructions – and a well-defined distinction between evolutionary selection and developmental selection. It generalizes and modifies the gene-centered view of biological evolution by centering on basic instructions, which are more than genes; and by focusing on their instructing of ontogeny, instead of replicating during phylogeny. It directly applies to socioeconomic evolution, finding the basic instructions in the genomes of individuals and the institutional rules of societies. The main insights obtained are: (1) biological evolution involves several levels of developmental selection, but only one of evolutionary selection; (2) in socioeconomic evolution, the evolutionary selection is not of groups, but of genomically compatible institutional rules for the forming, developing and operating of groups successful in developmental selection; (3) self-organization generates order at more levels than evolutionary selection, but this produces more of new information.

http://kie.vse.cz/english/new-pavel-pelikans-working-paper

Seminář se bude odehrávat v českém nebo anglickém jazyce, podle aktuálního složení auditoria.