Towards a Theory of Evolution as Multilevel Learning

Abstract We apply the theory of learning to physically renormalizable systems in an attempt to develop a theory of biological evolution, including the origin of life, as multilevel learning. We formulate seven fundamental principles of evolution that appear to be necessary and sufficient to render a universe observable and show that they entail the major features of biological evolution, including replication and natural selection. These principles also follow naturally from the theory of learning. We formulate the theory of evolution using the mathematical framework of neural networks, which provides for detailed analysis of evolutionary phenomena. To demonstrate the potential of the proposed theoretical framework, we derive a generalized version of the Central Dogma of molecular biology by analyzing the flow of information during learning (back-propagation) and predicting (forward-propagation) the environment by evolving organisms. The more complex evolutionary phenomena, such as major transitions in evolution, in particular, the origin of life, have to be analyzed in the thermodynamic limit, which is described in detail in the accompanying paper. Significance statement Modern evolutionary theory gives a detailed quantitative description of microevolutionary processes that occur within evolving populations of organisms, but evolutionary transitions and emergence of multiple levels of complexity remain poorly understood. Here we establish correspondence between the key features of evolution, renormalizability of physical theories and learning dynamics, to outline a theory of evolution that strives to incorporate all evolutionary processes within a unified mathematical framework of the theory of learning. Under this theory, for example, natural selection readily arises from the learning dynamics, and in sufficiently complex systems, the same learning phenomena occur on multiple levels or on different scales, similar to the case of renormalizable physical theories.