Abstract
We consider an information-theoretic model studying the
conditions when a separation between the dynamics of a
’proto-cell’ and its proto-symbolic representation becomes
beneficial in terms of preserving the proto-cell’s information
in a noisy environment. In particular, we are interested in
understanding the behaviour at the “error threshold” level
which, in our case, turns out to be a whole “error interval”.
We separate the phenomena into a “waste” and a “loss”
component; the “waste” measures “packaging” information
which envelops the proto-cell’s information, but itself does
not contain any information of interest, the “loss” measures
how much of the proto-symbolically encoded information is
actually lost. We observe that transitions in the waste/loss
functions correspond to the boundaries of the “error interval”.
Secondly, we study whether and how different protocells
can share such information via a joint code, even if they
have slightly different individual dynamics. Implications for
the emergence of biological genetic code are discussed.
conditions when a separation between the dynamics of a
’proto-cell’ and its proto-symbolic representation becomes
beneficial in terms of preserving the proto-cell’s information
in a noisy environment. In particular, we are interested in
understanding the behaviour at the “error threshold” level
which, in our case, turns out to be a whole “error interval”.
We separate the phenomena into a “waste” and a “loss”
component; the “waste” measures “packaging” information
which envelops the proto-cell’s information, but itself does
not contain any information of interest, the “loss” measures
how much of the proto-symbolically encoded information is
actually lost. We observe that transitions in the waste/loss
functions correspond to the boundaries of the “error interval”.
Secondly, we study whether and how different protocells
can share such information via a joint code, even if they
have slightly different individual dynamics. Implications for
the emergence of biological genetic code are discussed.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Artificial Life XI |
| Subtitle of host publication | Procs of the 11th Int Conf on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems |
| Editors | Seth Bullock, Jason Noble, Richard Watson, Mark A. Bedau |
| Publisher | MIT Press |
| Pages | 490-497 |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-0-262-75017-2 |
| Publication status | Published - 2008 |