Organic Selection and Social Heredity: The Original Baldwin Effect Revisited

The so-called “Baldwin Effect” has been studied for years in the fields of Artificial Life, Cognitive Science, and Evolutionary Theory across disciplines. This idea is often conflated with genetic assimilation, and has raised controversy in trans-disciplinary scientific discourse due to the many interpretations it has. This paper revisits the “Baldwin Effect” in Baldwin’s original spirit from a joint historical, theoretical and experimental approach. Social Heredity – the inheritance of cultural knowledge via non-genetic means in Baldwin’s term – is also taken into consideration. I shall argue that the Baldwin Effect can occur via social heredity without necessity for genetic assimilation. Computational experiments are carried out to show that when social heredity is permitted with high fidelity, there is no need for the assimilation of acquired characteristics; instead the Baldwin Effect occurs as promoting more plasticity to facilitate future intelligence. The role of mind and intelligence in evolution and its implications in an extended synthesis of evolution are briefly discussed

Myths and Legends of the Baldwin Effect

This position paper argues that the Baldwin effect is widely misunderstood by the evolutionary computation community. The misunderstandings appear to fall into two general categories. Firstly, it is commonly believed that the Baldwin effect is concerned with the synergy that results when there is an evolving population of learning individuals. This is only half of the story. The full story is more complicated and more interesting. The Baldwin effect is concerned with the costs and benefits of lifetime learning by individuals in an evolving population. Several researchers have focussed exclusively on the benefits, but there is much to be gained from attention to the costs. This paper explains the two sides of the story and enumerates ten of the costs and benefits of lifetime learning by individuals in an evolving population. Secondly, there is a cluster of misunderstandings about the relationship between the Baldwin effect and Lamarckian inheritance of acquired characteristics. The Baldwin effect is not Lamarckian. A Lamarckian algorithm is not better for most evolutionary computing problems than a Baldwinian algorithm. Finally, Lamarckian inheritance is not a better model of memetic (cultural) evolution than the Baldwin effect

Faculty Essay: On Civility

Our collective imagination is presently being held captive by a politics of name-calling, bullying and fear-mongering. We seem to be on the precipice of forgetting some elementary things about how to speak and how to listen

Addressing Risk Challenges in a Changing Financial Environment:the Need for Greater Accountability in Financial Regulation and Risk Management

The need for continuous monitoring and regulation is particularly attributed to, and justified by, the inevitable presence of risks and uncertainty – both in terms of certain externalities and indeterminacies which are capable of being reasonably quantified and those which are not. Amongst other goals, this paper aims to address complexities and challenges faced by regulators in identifying and assessing risk, problems arising from different perceptions of risk, and solutions aimed at countering problems of risk regulation. It will approach these issues through an assessment of explanations put forward to justify the growing importance of risks, well known risk theories such as cultural theory, risk society theory and governmentality theory. “Socio cultural” explanations which relate to how risk is increasingly becoming embedded in organisations and institutions will also be considered as part of those factors attributable to why the financial environment has become transformed to the state in which it currently exists. A consideration of regulatory developments which have contributed to a change in the way financial regulation is carried out, as well as developments which have contributed to the de formalisation of rules and a corresponding “loss of certainty”, will also constitute focal points of the paper. To what extent are risks capable of being quantified? Who is able to assist with such quantification – and why has it become necessary to introduce other regulatory actors and greater measures aimed at fostering corporate governance and accountability into the regulatory process? These questions constitute some of the issues which this paper aims to address

Financial Regulation and Risk Management:Addressing Risk Challenges in a Changing Financial Environment

Amongst other goals, this paper aims to address complexities and challenges faced by regulators in identifying and assessing risk, problems arising from different perceptions of risk, and solutions aimed at countering problems of risk regulation. It will approach these issues through an assessment of explanations put forward to justify the growing importance of risks, well known risk theories such as cultural theory, risk society theory and governmentality theory. In addressing the problems posed as a result of the difficulty in quantifying risks, it will consider means whereby risks can be quantified reasonably without the consequential effects which result from the dual nature of risk, that is, risks emanating from the management of institutional risks. “Socio cultural” explanations which relate to how risk is increasingly becoming embedded in organisations and institutions will also be considered as part of those factors attributable to why the financial environment has become transformed to the state in which it currently exists. A consideration of regulatory developments which have contributed to a change in the way financial regulation is carried out, an illustration of how the financial industry and the approach to financial regulation have been transformed by the rapid growth of the hedge funds industry, will also constitute focal points of the paper

Genetic Assimilation and Canalisation in the Baldwin Effect

The Baldwin Effect indicates that individually learned behaviours acquired during an organism’s lifetime can influence the evolutionary path taken by a population, without any direct Lamarckian transfer of traits from phenotype to genotype. Several computational studies modelling this effect have included complications that restrict its applicability. Here we present a simplified model that is used to reveal the essential mechanisms and highlight several conceptual issues that have not been clearly defined in prior literature. In particular, we suggest that canalisation and genetic assimilation, often conflated in previous studies, are separate concepts and the former is actually not required for non-heritable phenotypic variation to guide genetic variation. Additionally, learning, often considered to be essential for the Baldwin Effect, can be replaced with a more general phenotypic plasticity model. These simplifications potentially permit the Baldwin Effect to operate in much more general circumstances

Beyond the Financial Crisis:Addressing Risk Challenges in a Changing Financial Environment

The Financial Crisis has not only highlighted the importance of addressing issues such as liquidity risk – it has also brought to the fore the need to focus on unregulated instruments such as hedge funds, which are of systemic importance to the financial industry. Risk is an area which, owing to its increasing significance, requires greater focus. A move to risk based strategies is evidenced by the growing popularity of risk based regulation and meta regulatory strategies. Given the presence of an unregulated hedge fund industry however, such attempts do not suffice on their own. Further, the systemic nature of risk exacerbates the problem of such unregulated institutions. This paper aims to address complexities and challenges faced by regulators in identifying and assessing risk, problems arising from different perceptions of risk, and solutions aimed at countering problems of risk regulation. It will approach these issues through an assessment of explanations put forward to justify the growing importance of risks, well known risk theories such as cultural theory, risk society theory and governmentality theory. These theories will be considered against a background of themes such as dynamism, evolutionism, developments in science and industry, cultural attitudes to risk, and the need to be responsive and reflexive to changes which have arisen in modern society. Theoretical models and hybrids of a responsive model of regulation such as Enforced self regulation and meta regulation, which have the potential to address the problems relating to risk will be addressed. By virtue of the pro cyclical nature of risk, the inability of Basel 2 to address risk cycles were revealed during the Northern Rock Crisis. Other flaws and deficiencies inherent in Basel 2, a form of meta regulation, will be highlighted. The relevance of internal control systems to an efficient system of regulation, the reasons for which meta regulation is not only considered to be the most responsive form of regulation, but also one which assigns central role to internal control systems will be discussed. The contested nature of risk and the difficulties attributed to its quantification, raise questions about its ability to function effectively as a regulatory tool. If risks could be eliminated in their entirety however, then regulation would serve no purpose. This paper aims generally therefore to direct attention to those areas which could be addressed, namely institutional risks, and measures whereby such risks, even though impossible to eliminate, could be minimize

Milk production from leguminous forage, roots and potatoes

The aim of the present work was to investigate the effects of replacing grain concentrates with roots and potatoes in dairy cow diets based upon large amounts of grass/alfalfa silage. The emphasis was on the possible improvement of microbial protein synthesis and nitrogen balance. Alfalfa dominated silage has a large excess of ruminally degradable protein that must be balanced with feed carbohydrates to avoid urinary nitrogen losses. The effects on ruminal fermentation pattern, intake and production were also studied. The thesis is based on two batch culture in vitro experiments and three animal experiments. The in vitro experiments compared fodder beets, barley/oats and raw, boiled or frozen potatoes as supplements to a silage diet incubated with rumen fluid from cows fed different diets. With respect to amounts fermented during 5 h incubation, supplements were ranked (P barley/oats > raw potatoes = frozen potatoes = unsupplemented silage. Substrates were numerically ranked in the same order with respect to microbial protein production, but due to larger variation they could only be divided into two groups, where fodder beets, boiled potatoes and barley/oats gave microbial yields not different from each other, but higher than for raw potatoes, frozen potatoes or unsupplemented silage. Butyrate proportion was little affected by incubation substrate but fodder beets fed to rumen fluid donor cows increased butyrate molar proportion in vitro from 10.7 to 13.0%. A change-over design experiment compared barley supplementation with fodder beet and potato supplementation of a silage diet for lactating cows. The fodder beet/potato diet lowered ad libitum silage intake by 0.9 kg DM/d and milk yield decreased correspondingly by 1.7 to 2.3 kg/d. Microbial protein production and nitrogen balance were not increased by the fodder beet supplementation, but a part of N excretion was redirected from urine to feces. Fodder beets tended to decrease the ratio lipogenic/glucogenic VFA, by increasing propionate and butyrate at the expense of acetate. In an intake experiment, most of the cows consumed the maximum allowance of fodder beets (4.6 kg DM/d) while there was a huge variation in the potato intake. A more synchronous feeding of degradable protein and readily available carbohydrates lowered the urinary nitrogen loss and increased allantoin excretion numerically but not significantly. A close correlation (R2 = 0.94) was found between total urinary N excretion and the ratio urea/creatinine in urine, which implies that spot sampling of urine may be a way to facilitate N balance measurements in lactating cows. In conclusion, a full replacement of grain by roots and potatoes can be done and the effects will be lowered urinary N losses but also a reduction in silage consumption and hence also milk production

The revival of the Baldwin Effect

The idea that a genetically fixed behavior evolved from the once differential learning ability of individuals that performed the behavior is known as the Baldwin effect. A highly influential paper [Hinton G.E., Nowlan S.J., 1987. How learning can guide evolution. Complex Syst. 1, 495-502] claimed that this effect can be observed in silico, but here we argue that what was actually shown is that the learning ability is easily selected for. Then we demonstrate the Baldwin effect to happen in the in silico scenario by estimating the probability and waiting times for the learned behavior to become innate. Depending on parameter values, we find that learning can increase the chance of fixation of the learned behavior by several orders of magnitude compared with the non-learning situation