The Minimal Complexity of Adapting Agents Increases with Fitness

What is the relationship between the complexity and the fitness of evolved organisms, whether natural or artificial? It has been asserted, primarily based on empirical data, that the complexity of plants and animals increases as their fitness within a particular environment increases via evolution by natural selection. We simulate the evolution of the brains of simple organisms living in a planar maze that they have to traverse as rapidly as possible. Their connectome evolves over 10,000s of generations. We evaluate their circuit complexity, using four information-theoretical measures, including one that emphasizes the extent to which any network is an irreducible entity. We find that their minimal complexity increases with their fitness.

• Publication year

  2012

• Venue

  IEEE Symposium on Artificial Life

• Publication date

  2012-07-02

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine, Computer Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003111PMID 23874168PMCID 3708884
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Modular Biological Complexity

  2012cited by this paper
• Chance and necessity in the evolution of a bacterial pathogen

  2011cited by this paper
• Integrated Information Increases with Fitness in the Evolution of Animats

  2011influential reference
• Passive and Driven Trends in the Evolution of Complexity

  2011cited by this paper
• Biological complexity

  2011cited by this paper
• Nonnegative Decomposition of Multivariate Information

  2010cited by this paper
• The Value of Information for Populations in Varying Environments

  2010cited by this paper
• Metabolic cost as a unifying principle governing neuronal biophysics

  2010cited by this paper
• Fitness and its role in evolutionary genetics

  2009cited by this paper
• Entropy bounds on Bayesian learning

  2008cited by this paper
• Integrated Information in Discrete Dynamical Systems: Motivation and Theoretical Framework

  2008cited by this paper
• Predictive information and explorative behavior of autonomous robots

  2008cited by this paper
• A Survey of Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes: Theory, Models, and Algorithms

  2007cited by this paper
• Darwinian fitness.

  2007cited by this paper
• Elements of information theory (2. ed.)

  2006cited by this paper
• Elements of Information Theory

  2005cited by this paper
• The fitness value of information

  2005cited by this paper
• Entropy production and extraction in dynamical systems and turbulence

  2004cited by this paper
• Consciousness and Complexity

  2003cited by this paper
• The evolutionary origin of complex features

  2003cited by this paper
• Predictability , Complexity , and Learning

  2002cited by this paper
• Information Geometry on Complexity and Stochastic Interaction

  2001cited by this paper
• Chance and necessity: the evolution of morphological complexity and diversity

  2001cited by this paper
• The role of relative entropy in quantum information theory

  2001cited by this paper
• Information-theoretic approach to the study of control systems

  2001cited by this paper
• Evolution of Biological Complexity

  2000cited by this paper
• ADAPTATION AND THE COST OF COMPLEXITY

  2000cited by this paper
• Predictability, Complexity, and Learning

  2000cited by this paper
• ENTROPY PRODUCTION AND PHASE SPACE VOLUME CONTRACTION

  1999cited by this paper
• Entropy production fluctuation theorem and the nonequilibrium work relation for free energy differences.

  1999cited by this paper
• Measures of degeneracy and redundancy in biological networks.

  1999cited by this paper
• Information-theoretic limits of control

  1999cited by this paper
• Biological Sequence Analysis: Probabilistic Models of Proteins and Nucleic Acids

  1998cited by this paper
• Consciousness and Complexity

  1998cited by this paper
• The metabolic cost of neural information

  1998cited by this paper
• Statistical Inference, Distinguishability of Quantum States, And Quantum Entanglement

  1997cited by this paper
• PERSPECTIVE METAZOAN COMPLEXITY AND EVOLUTION: IS THERE A TREND?

  1996cited by this paper
• The Helmholtz Machine

  1995cited by this paper
• A measure for brain complexity: relating functional segregation and integration in the nervous system.

  1994cited by this paper
• Markov Decision Processes: Discrete Stochastic Dynamic Programming

  1994cited by this paper
• Markov Decision Processes: Discrete Stochastic Dynamic Programming

  1994cited by this paper
• Complexity and evolution: What everybody knows

  1991cited by this paper
• Thermodynamic cost of computation, algorithmic complexity and the information metric

  1989cited by this paper
• The Evolution of Complexity by Means of Natural Selection

  1988cited by this paper
• State of the Art—A Survey of Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes: Theory, Models, and Algorithms

  1982cited by this paper
• Adaptedness and Fitness

  1977cited by this paper
• Complexity in organic evolution.

  1977cited by this paper
• Three approaches to the quantitative definition of information

  1968cited by this paper
• A note on two problems in connexion with graphs

  1959cited by this paper
• An Introduction to Cybernetics

  1957cited by this paper
• Communication in the Presence of Noise

  1949cited by this paper
• The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection

  1930cited by this paper
• F Ur Mathematik in Den Naturwissenschaften Leipzig Dynamical Properties of Strongly Interacting Markov Chains Dynamical Properties of Strongly Interacting Markov Chains

  year unknowncited by this paper

• Energy Costs and Neural Complexity Evolution in Changing Environments

  2025influential citation
• A Measure Centrality Index for Systematic Empirical Comparison of Consciousness Theories.

  2024cites this paper
• Evolving Neural Networks with Optimal Balance between Information Flow and Connections Cost

  2022cites this paper
• Augmenting Human Selves Through Artificial Agents – Lessons From the Brain

  2022cites this paper
• System Integrated Information

  2022cites this paper
• A unified Method for assessing the Observability of Dynamic Complex Systems

  2022influential citation
• Using MAP-Elites to direct the evolution of desired neural characteristics

  2021cites this paper
• Degeneracy in the nervous system: from neuronal excitability to neural coding

  2021cites this paper
• Awareness and integrated information theory identify plant meristems as sites of conscious activity

  2021cites this paper
• Designing for the Future: A Complex Systems Approach to Communication Networks

  2020cites this paper
• Human cerebral organoids and consciousness: a double-edged sword

  2020cites this paper
• Complexity Measures: Open Questions and Novel Opportunities in the Automatic Design and Analysis of Robot Swarms

  2019cites this paper
• How cognitive and environmental constraints influence the reliability of simulated animats in groups

  2019cites this paper
• The Emergence of Integrated Information, Complexity, and ‘Consciousness’ at Criticality

  2019cites this paper
• The Evolution of Neuroplasticity and the Effect on Integrated Information

  2019influential citation
• Phenomenal Aspects of the Self

  2019cites this paper
• Multi-objective optimisation for evaluation of collective machine consciousness

  2018cites this paper
• Phase transitions of Integrated Information in the Generalized Ising Model of the Brain

  2018cites this paper
• Evolving autonomous learning in cognitive networks

  2017cites this paper
• Integrated information as a metric for group interaction

  2017cites this paper
• Breakdown of Modularity in Complex Networks

  2017cites this paper
• Markov Brains: A Technical Introduction

  2017cites this paper
• Machine Learned Learning Machines

  2017cites this paper
• Degeneracy in hippocampal physiology and plasticity

  2017influential citation
• Evolution of Decision-Making Systems

  2017cites this paper
• The Relationship Between Consciousness and Top-Down Attention

  2016cites this paper
• Optimality of Social Choice Systems: Complexity, Wisdom, and Wellbeing Centrality

  2016cites this paper
• A Functional Complexity Framework for the Analysis of Telecommunication Networks

  2016cites this paper
• Measuring logic complexity can guide pattern discovery in empirical systems

  2016cites this paper
• A Deeper Look at the “Neural Correlate of Consciousness”

  2016cites this paper
• Flies as Ship Captains? Digital Evolution Unravels Selective Pressures to Avoid Collision in Drosophila

  2016cites this paper
• Dynamical Criticality: Overview and Open Questions

  2015cites this paper
• Degeneracy: Demystifying and destigmatizing a core concept in systems biology

  2015cites this paper
• Information-theoretic neuro-correlates boost evolution of cognitive systems

  2015cites this paper
• Homology of Boolean functions and the complexity of simplicial homology

  2015cites this paper
• Dynamical Properties of Artificially Evolved Boolean Network Robots

  2015cites this paper
• Consciousness: here, there and everywhere?

  2015cites this paper
• Hidden in plain view: degeneracy in complex systems

  2015cites this paper
• From the Phenomenology to the Mechanisms of Consciousness: Integrated Information Theory 3.0

  2014cites this paper
• Consciousness: Here, There but Not Everywhere

  2014cites this paper
• Evolution of Integrated Causal Structures in Animats Exposed to Environments of Increasing Complexity

  2014influential citation
• Consciousness as a state of matter

  2014cites this paper