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Precise Traits from Sloppy Components: Perception and the Origin of Phenotypic Response

Organisms perceive their environment and respond. The origin of perception–response traits presents a puzzle. Perception provides no value without response. Response requires perception. Recent advances in machine learning may provide a solution. A randomly connected network creates a reservoir of p...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Frank, Steven A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10453304/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37628192
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/e25081162
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author Frank, Steven A.
author_facet Frank, Steven A.
author_sort Frank, Steven A.
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description Organisms perceive their environment and respond. The origin of perception–response traits presents a puzzle. Perception provides no value without response. Response requires perception. Recent advances in machine learning may provide a solution. A randomly connected network creates a reservoir of perceptive information about the recent history of environmental states. In each time step, a relatively small number of inputs drives the dynamics of the relatively large network. Over time, the internal network states retain a memory of past inputs. To achieve a functional response to past states or to predict future states, a system must learn only how to match states of the reservoir to the target response. In the same way, a random biochemical or neural network of an organism can provide an initial perceptive basis. With a solution for one side of the two-step perception–response challenge, evolving an adaptive response may not be so difficult. Two broader themes emerge. First, organisms may often achieve precise traits from sloppy components. Second, evolutionary puzzles often follow the same outlines as the challenges of machine learning. In each case, the basic problem is how to learn, either by artificial computational methods or by natural selection.
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spelling pubmed-104533042023-08-26 Precise Traits from Sloppy Components: Perception and the Origin of Phenotypic Response Frank, Steven A. Entropy (Basel) Article Organisms perceive their environment and respond. The origin of perception–response traits presents a puzzle. Perception provides no value without response. Response requires perception. Recent advances in machine learning may provide a solution. A randomly connected network creates a reservoir of perceptive information about the recent history of environmental states. In each time step, a relatively small number of inputs drives the dynamics of the relatively large network. Over time, the internal network states retain a memory of past inputs. To achieve a functional response to past states or to predict future states, a system must learn only how to match states of the reservoir to the target response. In the same way, a random biochemical or neural network of an organism can provide an initial perceptive basis. With a solution for one side of the two-step perception–response challenge, evolving an adaptive response may not be so difficult. Two broader themes emerge. First, organisms may often achieve precise traits from sloppy components. Second, evolutionary puzzles often follow the same outlines as the challenges of machine learning. In each case, the basic problem is how to learn, either by artificial computational methods or by natural selection. MDPI 2023-08-03 /pmc/articles/PMC10453304/ /pubmed/37628192 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/e25081162 Text en © 2023 by the author. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Frank, Steven A.
Precise Traits from Sloppy Components: Perception and the Origin of Phenotypic Response
title Precise Traits from Sloppy Components: Perception and the Origin of Phenotypic Response
title_full Precise Traits from Sloppy Components: Perception and the Origin of Phenotypic Response
title_fullStr Precise Traits from Sloppy Components: Perception and the Origin of Phenotypic Response
title_full_unstemmed Precise Traits from Sloppy Components: Perception and the Origin of Phenotypic Response
title_short Precise Traits from Sloppy Components: Perception and the Origin of Phenotypic Response
title_sort precise traits from sloppy components: perception and the origin of phenotypic response
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10453304/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37628192
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/e25081162
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