Is evolution search spaced?

prescott-15
Photo owned by seantoyer (cc)

So I was reading about how a primeval gene has become active again. A gene that was thought to have been snuffed out by the engine of evolution has become active again. Already it’s being named the Resurrection Gene.

Our classical view of evolution is Darwinian. Natural selection, Darwin theorised,  is a process that weeds out regressive genes from DNA, leaving genes that prove to be favourable in the survival of species.

So are we evolving backwards or is this just a freak event? A toggle in our gene juice?

I’m no geneticist, but wouldn’t be interesting if evolution was a non-linear search space algorithm. Instead of the evolution being a linear march, it was very long sweep through the search space of our DNA. Natural selection overlaying a grand search experiment of toggling genes over eons. And not only our genes, but the fabric of universe. A game so long in fact that we perceive human evolution, the billionth of a heartbeat, an end-to-end process from X to 21st Century biped; something that our cognitive linear programming naturally finds easier to process.

Like any great deterministic search space algorithm, the variables yield the result.  With no clear theories on the function of junk DNA, our way is clouded. Endgame is something that we’ve yet to comprehend. We’re just peeking up those steps.

March 9th, 2009 at 11:52 am • Filed in Brainstrobing, Geekery



Comments

3 Comments to “Is evolution search spaced?”

  1. James Gallagher Says:
    March 10th, 2009 at 10:37 am

    I think it’s less evolving backwards and perhaps more sideways but that asks the question, whether the junk DNA is a lot of chance and we’re getting lucky through its diversity or a fundamental of the behaviour of DNA? would be tough to explain the latter.



  2. Stan Says:
    March 10th, 2009 at 4:29 pm

    Hi Alexia, interesting post.

    Evolution isn’t linear any more than it’s mappable as a ‘tree of life’. It’s more of a shifting web, or an “entangled bank” as Darwin put it. The more specialized an organism, the less potential it has for change. But modest backtracking is always possible, as with this ‘resurrection gene’. New Scientist has a small imagination and a short memory – evolutionary backtracking is an old idea. If you’re interested, have a peek at Chapter 14 in this book.

    Some genes are mute or suppressed until environmental conditions cue their activity. A dramatic example is if you release a domestic pig into the wild: it becomes feral within days or weeks, with rapid physical changes. This is achieved through regulating gene expression.

    Natural selection plays a part in evolution, but there are other mechanisms. You don’t hear so much about them because orthodox evolutionary theory has become synonymous with neo-Darwinism, which is an inadequate and misleading model.

    As to whether evolution is search spaced, I don’t know enough computer science to assess the analogy. It sounds a bit algorithmy, so my guess is no. Marrying biology to maths is what got evolutionary theory into its current mess!



  3. Alexia Says:
    March 11th, 2009 at 8:08 am

    It’s an very interesting space. Like I said, I’m not a geneticist, just someone on a flight of fancy. :)



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