Evolution by Selfreference

The ToE with the natural selection beeing the main evolution mechanism, as defined above has been claimed to be insufficient in importand cases. A vivid discussion in science and in the society generally still holds on. Below I list phenomena which explanation in the standard paradigma of ToE appears not natural nor strightforward, which on the other hand the model presented in this article claims to explain much easier.

The above list gives items at different abstraction levels, which also partially overlap. To this phenomena list one may add as a seventh point a general problem stating that:
The ToE surely partially touches these objections, but the solutions proposed seem at least not to be stright, efficient and very convincing. They seem to neglect somehow the true cause of change. At a more abstract level this cause yet possibly exists.  (7) 

Traditionally evolutionists deny a possibility of another cause promoting evolutionary emergence of new complexity while rejecting objections from creationists.

As stated above the nature shows tendency to evolve towards more complexity even beyond the aplicability of the natural selection mechanism. How does this come about ?

This text pays a special attension to the self-referencing feedback loops. The most important such (natural) feedback loop is closed by inheriting DNA by the organisms in the next generation. These loops are naturally promoting self-amplification of forms. The reason for this amplification is the nature of a loop itself which is closed by passing functionalities to the next cycle. The biological evolution is build upon such cycles. Thus in living organisms the natural feedback is realised by successing and amplifying functionalities stored in DNA (inheritance). Parents bring up children, which can be considered to be copies similar to themselves.

In the EbS model the natural selection remains the main mechanism shaping a concrete phenotype. It curves the individual species out of the stream of generation cycles. Yet the natural selection is not a neccessary condition for the evolution to take place. Without it the evolution promoted by self-reference simply fills all possibilities spreading around so far as it reaches limits (like selection condtions).

Aldow the ineritance plays in the evolution of organisms undeniably the central role traditionally the natural selection has been put in the middle of the ToE description. This caused the self-amplification, which the model presented here stresses to be overseen. As a consequence the whole theory was widely half-undestood in the society and importand phenomena has been half-explained by the science.

The self-reference (or feedback) model (EbS) on the other hand demonstrates more clear, what has (partially) already been known that:

To demonstrate how the feedback engine works let us consider as an example an electric amplifier fed back through the microphone by the sound that the loud speaker is producing. Obviously some high tone emerges. The control theory distingushes between a positive and a negative feedback. The expotential growth (explosion) is the consequence of the first one, while the steady vibration is the consequence of the second.

Considering a feedback engine of a whole ecosystem is much more complex, but some clues are seen immediately. One can argue that the spectrum of some distinct "tones" (called species) with only small information transfere (gene transfere) beteewn them must come about. Why is it so ?

Without giving the strict proof this article suggests that in any given initial random distribution some minima and maxima appear just by definition of a distribution variety. They must further contract and posess thus fixpoints  (8) 

See also Banachs' fix point theorem.

identified in the biology as individual species.

The computational methods can in principle be applied to judge about it what species spectrum will emerge. For the whole ecosphere some astronomical data like the day-night rythmus, the energy flux from the sun, etc. could be the bundary conditions. Yet the true "mystery" appears when:



Therefore computations for limited ecosystems might be more successfull.

Let us see what consequences the mathematical model has on speciation. From the described contractions in the spiecies spectrum one may follow, that individual species will be more and more distinct from each other. Practically this means, that a gen flow between species will be weaker and weaker during eons. This explaines why the gen flow in microworld is significantly bigger than in the macroscale - the microworld is simply much elder.

Let us demonstrate how the EbS explains the diversity in paaring behaviours. The fertilisation poses obviously a bottleneck in the generation cycle: A small amount of substance with DNA is transfered which has wast conseqences to the new organism (new cycle). A huge pressure from the whole self-refering loop concentrates at this point. A grown up male and female posess enought ressources to realise and to amplify the behaviour which ever appears. Each must end with the fertilisation yet. As a consequence otherwise strange behaviours are amplified equally often as the strightest one. For a deer to carry antlers is just not difficult enought to stand this pressure.  (9) 

Such mating rituals has been studied and described. E.g. see Fisher in July 12, 1990 issue of Nature referenced by Chris Colby, Evidence for Evolution, sexual selection, 1997. What lacked was an explicite qualification of this mechanism as feedback amplification.

 (10) 

Also P.J.Weatherhead and R.J.Robertson pointed with their sexy son hypothesis on some self-reference as an explanation for the sexual behaviour.

In a more pictorial metapher one can compare this bottleneck situation with daming up a river by dam, which causes it to overflow. An evolution perpendicular to the direction, which the main feedback cycle (main stream) is pointing to spreads around.

Using this metapher one explains also the homosexuality: There are enough ressources, also of erotic charm collected (damed) at this point near the reproduction events. The pressure of a feedback alone without outer cause nor benefit shows here it's power. Using the river metapher from above one may say the dammed river overflows and some water break out of the cycle.

The feedback model easily explains sudden jumps in the past evolution of living organisms, which the paleonthology is suggesting. The cause, why such "jumps" take place is that closing of new feedback loops naturally occur suddenly compared with longer periods of stabile feedbacks.

In the standard model speciation appears as if it were the consequence of erobering new environments. On the other hand in the model presented in this article this is not neccesssary so. The speciation will suddenly take place also in a constant and fully occupied ecosystem just by closing a new self-reference loop. With each new self-reference a specie is adopting new subsystem, which commonly means aquiring new abilities, whereas a new specie emerges if a self-reference loop closes in significant parts through the outer environment  (12) 

This might be undestood as a new speciacion definition: Two species differ with self-reference loops.

.

When does new loops emerge then ? This question may be substituted by the question, when it is easy for a specie  (13) 

or even for the whole ecological niche

to adopt new subsystems. To answere this one must undestand given functionalities and imagine possible developements. The part of the answere is easily given in situations after big catastrophes, when free ressources are easily accessible and old abilities are not fully forgotten.

Surely sudden jumps can be graded as sudden only relative to a smooth and stabile background without change and vice versa.

The energy from the sun pumped into a quasi-stable biosphere is stored in it in form of circulating processes. Yet the convection alone seems not capable to promote self-reference. The periodicity is neccessary for self-referencing structures to emerge  (14) 

Periodicity can be undestood as convection it time, wheres the proper convection closes it's loop in space

Natural periodicity results from the earth rotation or the see waves. Therefore a 24 h and 4 sec (sea waves on the shore) rithmes could be searched for in primary cycles  (15) 

See also a M.Eigen Hypercycles.

Two rythmes more than double their capacity to aggregate substances and thus to promote cycles.

The the above idea can hardly be undestood as a proper hypotheses. Yet it shows that the self-reference paradigma is consistent with the emergence of life as primary cycles and especially with M.Eigens' idea. Within this paradigma the emergence of life appears rather as a neccessity than as a singular unprobable event. The paradigma of a natural selection othe other hand can hardly be applied to explain cycles.

The above picture fits well into the idea of dissipative systems by I.Prigogine. Setting the self-referencing circles as information storing cells in the middle of the model makes this storing (and damming) to be undestood easier.

This chapter is highly speculative. It is included here to demonstrate the power, which the self-reference paradigma offers. The justifying research and a scientific proof, which must follow may show that the picture drawn here is a oversimplification.

Let us imagine a group of hominids as a social entiety, bound together by exchanging social signals regarding individuals like signals refering bringing up children, hierachy in a group, common threats, etc. Let us as a simplification imagine that these signals regard only social issues and are realised by some instance in each individual psychic.

Let us further imagine that this system manages enough complexity to be one day (possibly by some collapse in the psychics) used beneth its' proper applicability for social themes to describe issues from the physical world outside of a social group. It appears than that threes, mountains and lakes aquire personal features. They are "he", "she" or "it" ! Such hominids begin to hear, what mountains "are saying". Obviously its' just a misuse of a social competence.

It is crucial to notice yet that this false application closes a strong feedback loop. A hominid group suddenly acquires (abstract) means to handle it's environment in a new way, which on the other hand drives the redefinition of the psychical instance mensioned above. What was a social behaviour is a behaviour-substitute (a symbol) now. What follows is an explosion of language and a human culture. As a reminder of this developement some "ghosts" stay back. People hear even to inanimate nature the way the did to their parents (to members of their old social group).

While trying to explaing the emergence of language the ussual starting point is to expect some sort of adaptation is  (16) 

See "Language evolution - consenus and controversies" by Morten H. Christansen and Simon Kirby

On the other hand the picture drawn above didn't presume that any adaptation has taken place ! It's no competition, nor natural selection, nor any genetic drift, but only a pure strong feedback which causes new complexity to appear. It is even not neccessary that the psychics of such hominids is the most skilled (the biggest) between neighbouring species. Rather a weakness, which made a wrong use of posessed social skills was crucial, which yet closed the feedback.  (17) 

An interesting question arises when asking if such a developement was necessary and could be foreseen. It is for example known that elefants show the simmilar affinity to this type of "error": They consider dead relatives as if they were not dead.

In the standard ToE the selection mechanism demands high efficiency from each functional element which survives during a long competition fight. The EbS on the other hand releases this condition. Some inefficient structures in DNA known as noncoding DNA sequences, which the natural selection would get rid of may in EbS-model not only survive, but they can even sum up in situations of self-refering feedback.

The high percentage (up to 80%) of genetic drift can be thus be regarded as a proof that the main part of evolution occured by self-reference mechanism rather than by the natural selecton.

One may ask now, why some species (like a salamander) have much more DNA than others (like humans) (see a C-value paradox). Due to EbS this is connected with the different philogenesis of this species. The one which survived longer in constant friendly environment directed more it's feedback forces to just copying DNA without any need driven by selection. The ToE won't explain it so easy.

Undeniably sudden social changes challenge the humanity. New important feedback links has been closed even in the last decades with the mass media, the global trade, the internet. The emergence of new formal systems posessing abstract structures of information exchange one can experience as awakeings beasts, or one can not notice them at all, like children not noticing the danger, because it's too difficult. One of such beasts is the monetary system claiming to map human values to natural numbers - a mapping getting more and more one-directional, which provokes misuse.

Where does it all evolves to and what are our chances to regain control ?

The EbS model has an abstract, but simple answere: The feedbacks are crucial ! To regain control we must strengthen or weaken some of them and contsruct new ones, possibly ones, which enclose human sociology. Influencing the feedbacks is the best way to influence the developement and thus the future evolution.

The EbS entails in the natural way the human selfconsciousnes as a wehicle for our culture.

Let us consider the possible evolution of the biosphere as a whole. If it sucesses (possibly with a human help as a mediator) to stabilise the clima we could truely be witnessing the birth of some new (global) organism.

Yet an important element of it's self-reference is still lacking. This system does not know well enought itself to provide stability. Without such self-knowledge no true feedback link seem to be possible and it will decay by itself while destroying our environment and possibly us humans too. The challenge to the humanity stresses the fact that left alone this system seems aquiring the knowledge of human sociology by testing. Why ? - Just because it's the next possible closing loop.