EVOLVABILITY
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(1) |
| ID | ◀ 1206 ▶ |
| Object type | Discipline oriented |
- “The capacity of genes to mutate and modify an organism's genotype without jeopardizing its fitness ” (C. KOCH and G. LAURENT, 1999, p.96)
The authors write: “Evolvability should be favored by organismic compartmentation , redundancy, weak and multiple (parallel) linkages between regulatory processes and, finally, component robustness . These features all imply that evolution can only tinker with a system successfully if many of its constituents and coupling links are not essential for survival of the organism ”…
Applying this to the brain , they state that it should be “… replete with specialized circuits , parallel pathways , and redundant mechanisms ” (Ibid)
The evolvability concept is also probably significant for evolving complex social systems, specially the man-planet system presently in process of organization .
The author's comment is related to the evolutive path that led to the shaping of the highly organized mammalian and human nervous system and, particularly brains .
However, the concept and its shades of meaning seem to be generally applicable to any evolving system, including social organizations .