Social structure as genetic encoding

[Michael Allan]

Hey guys,

I discovered something strange and interesting.  Recall that Votorola
is recombinant text + transitive voting.  In order to keep it simple,
I was forced to drop the genetic encoding of the texts.  All I kept
was the population structure and text transfers, as explained here:
http://lists.thataway.org/scripts/wa-THATAWAY.exe?A2=ind0906E&L=NCDD-DISCUSSION&F=&S=&P=83

Today I was trying to figure how the population would structure itself
after we put the new pipe positions to work.  Here's what I figured:


   (-) (-)        (-) (-)
     \ /            \ /
     (c) (c)    (c) (c) (c)
       \ /        \  |  /
   (-) (-)         \ | /
     \ /            \|/          
     (-) (-)        (-) (-)
       \ /            \ /
   (c) (c) (c)        (c) (c)    (c) = component
     \  |  /            \ /      (-) = variant
      \ | /         (c) (c)
       \|/            \ / 
       (-)            (-)


The tree candidates at bottom (-) are variant plans, or whatever (as
we normally understand candidates to be).  This is a "selection"
layer.  Above is a "composition" layer.  Each component branch (c)
specializes in a single part, area or aspect of the plan.  Its drafts
still include the full text from downstream, but the drafters tend to
specialize on a single area.  Next are the variants of each component.
And so on, up the tree.

I can't go into details here (this is just a napkin sketch), but I
want to say that, technically, this is a genetic structure.  It
comprises formal design components (genes), plus variant contents
(alleles).  The genetics we behind appear to have returned in this
strange new form: encoded not within each text, but externally in the
social structure of the evolving population.

I'm not sure that's a correct reading yet, or what it might mean.  But
it got me thinking of the story Adam Curtis tells in the third part of
his video, about Bill Hamilton, George Price and Richard Dawkins:
http://thoughtmaybe.com/all-watched-over-by-machines-of-loving-grace/

  Part 3 — The Monkey in the Machine and the Machine in the Monkey
     This is a story about the rise of the machines, and why no one
     believes you can change the world for the better any more.  How
     we decided that we were machines ourselves, played video games,
     and started Africa's world war.

It would be neat if we could turn that story around with a different
notion of genetic programming!

-- 
Michael Allan

Toronto, +1 416-699-9528
http://zelea.com/