Welcome to CSE 590CE:Readings and Research in Computational Evolution

Course Mechanics

Mondays 1:30 to 2:20 1/17 and 2/21 are holidays = 8 meetings

Today’s organizational 7 paper discussion meetings

One normal or two small papers per week. Course web site to be set soon. Paper presenters should plan on a 30 minute

presentation: 20 slides.

About the Instructor

Daniel Weise M.S. ’82, PhD ’86 MIT A.I. Lab Stanford faculty 86-92 Microsoft Research 92-04 Affiliate Faculty (RSN) UW CSE I’m a CS type learning about biology, cells,

evolution, biochemistry, genetics, ecology, genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, etc.

We are here to learn and think We all get to learn together All comments and insights on papers are

welcome and encouraged I want this to be a discussion course.

I hope we have a diversity of backgrounds and approaches in this room to help ensure we don’t end up in group think

Computational Evolution

It’s about simulation. Computer power per unit cost is still exploding

exponentially. Can we use this power to create simulations that

shed insight in biological processes? What about the compute power available in ten

years? Instead of post-facto simulations, use compute

power to drive the theory, e.g., Hillis (unpublished)

Computational Evolution:Self replication + variation + landscapes Computational models of self-replicating

organisms Digital (Von Neumann architecture) Molecular (communicating processes)

Simulated landscapes with niches. Landscapes provide “fitness” measures

Subject to mutation and variation (diploid)

Building Phenotypes is the Fundamental Problem in Computational Evolution Selection operates on the phenotypes of

organisms. Phenotypes come from physics Modeling physics is expensive

Approximations Relating phenotypes back to biology is tricky.

What can we hope to find?

Validation of existing theories/hypotheses. The ability to propose and test new

hypotheses. Unanticipated phenomena to look for in

nature (e.g., Hillis) Better models for the physical world. Recapitulation of the rise of complexity of

organisms.

CE is at intersection of many fields Population/Evolutionary Genetics

Computes how gene frequencies of populations change due to selection, migration, & mutation.

Ecology When organisms can interact, ecologies form.

Efficient simulation methods Nature had 10^9 years and 10^28 organisms

Biochemistry and biophysics When modeling at the molecular level

Artificial Life, Signal Processing, Information Theory, Program Analysis

Readings

1/10: Evolution, Ecology and Optimization of Digital Organisms

1/17: Holiday, no class. 1/24: The Evolutionary Origin of Complex Adaptive Features 1/31:

Adaptive Radiation from Resource Competition in Digital Organisms (2004)

2/7: Evolution of Biological Complexity; 2/14: Tentative: four short Avida papers. 2/21: Holiday, no class. 2/28: TBA 3/07: TBA

Fun Reading Artificial Life by Steven Levy, Vintage books Proceedings of the 2nd Artificial Life conf. Introduction to Artificial Life, Chris Adami,

Telos books Theoretical Evolutionary Genetics, Joseph

Felsenstein, online at his website The Philosophy of Artificial Life, Margaret

Boden, Oxford Press Anything by Dawkins, Gould, or Maynard

Smith