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EVOLUTION - is the process by which the genetic material of a population changes over time, resulting in new traits, altered genes, and sometimes new species. It's a fundamental part of modern biological theory and is based on the idea that all species are related and change gradually over time.
Evolution occurs when there are changes in the proportions of genes in a population, or in the genetic material itself. This genetic material, DNA, is inherited from parents and contains chemical codes that produce proteins. The information in DNA can change through mutation, or the way genes are expressed can change. These changes can affect an organism's physical characteristics, or phenotype.
Evolution is a response to organisms adapting to their changing environments. For example, genetic studies indicate that humans are still evolving, even though we face fewer hazards today than in the past.
SELF ORGANIZATION - is the process by which individuals organize their communal behavior to create global order by interactions amongst themselves rather than through external intervention or instruction. As a highly complex and dynamic system involving many different elements interacting with each other, the nervous system displays many features of self-organization. This chapter discusses three forms of neural self-organization namely self-organization in development, self-organization as a complement to experiential changes, and self-organization as a complement to damage.
Self-organization in development is concerned the development of the nervous system. Since a key challenge in our understanding of the nervous system is to comprehend how such a highly structured yet complex system can emerge from a single fertilized egg. Self-organization as a complement to experiential changes refers to later stages in development, when self-organization plays a role along with other mechanisms such as those involving external signals arising from the sensory environment.
SELF SIMILARITY - is a property of many natural objects that makes them appear to have repeating patterns, curves, branching patterns, or substructures that are similar to the whole object. These objects are sometimes called fractal-like and are often super self-similar, meaning they are the most common type of self-similarity in nature.
Here are some examples of self-similarity in nature:
Trees
The branches of trees can exhibit natural disorder that may seem chaotic, but it's actually more organized than it appears.
Pine cones
The scales of pine cones spiral in a way that reflects the seeds they protect. This fractal design is caused by accelerated growth.
Coastlines
The coastline of Britain is an example of a shape that is self-similar, even when zoomed in by a thousand times.
Other examples of self-similarity in nature include: clouds, waves, ferns, cauliflowers, and flowers.
Now...
While this may be a lot to take in all at one time, Evolution, Self-Organization, and Self-Similarity are exactly the THREE VARIABLES that when given to humanoid AI robots in the form of algorithms allow them to TEACH THEMSELVES and transform into machines that can function like humans.
From the simple comes the complex...
Simple algorithms tell the robot to repeat the task over and over again, trashing the bad examples while keeping the good, to create an evolved robot over time.
When scientists program a robot with a brain and the simple task of learning to walk. Within twenty evolutions, the robot without any further human interaction or programming taught itself to walk.
The robot uses the basic concepts of NATURE to evolve...
For a NOVICE like me, I find this fascinating.
