TL;DR
This paper introduces Evo-Lexis, a modeling framework that explains how hierarchical modular structures in complex systems emerge and evolve over time through incremental design, selection, and mutation processes.
Contribution
Evo-Lexis provides a novel computational approach to understanding the emergence and evolution of hierarchical structures in complex systems, highlighting the role of reuse and selection.
Findings
Deep hierarchies emerge through mutation and tinkering.
Selection favors reuse of complex nodes, leading to hourglass architectures.
Core nodes are conserved over long periods despite major transitions.
Abstract
It is well known that many complex systems, both in technology and nature, exhibit hierarchical modularity: smaller modules, each of them providing a certain function, are used within larger modules that perform more complex functions. What is not well understood however is how this hierarchical structure (which is fundamentally a network property) emerges, and how it evolves over time. We propose a modeling framework, referred to as Evo-Lexis, that provides insight to some fundamental questions about evolving hierarchical systems. Evo-Lexis models the most elementary modules of the system as symbols ("sources") and the modules at the highest level of the hierarchy as sequences of those symbols ("targets"). Evo-Lexis computes the optimized adjustment of a given hierarchy when the set of targets changes over time by additions and removals (a process referred to as "incremental design").…
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