A new analytic experiment on an orthogonal evolution-of-sex axis: not the
recombination RATE (E9) but the population's mating STRUCTURE. Agents on a
ring recombine with a second parent drawn from a window of breadth b
(b->0 monogamous/isolation-by-distance, b=1 promiscuous/panmictic), under
local selection, swept against NK ruggedness K.
Finding: the optimal mate-pool breadth SHRINKS as skills get more
entangled. Wide/promiscuous merging wins the champion on additive
landscapes (K<=3, b=0.6), but on rugged ones (K>=6) it prematurely
converges to a worse champion and an intermediate breadth (b~0.35) wins;
pure monogamy over-fragments. Throughout, promiscuity monotonically lifts
the population MEAN but destroys diversity and parallel exploration. The
design rule extends E9: merge widely for additive skills, keep
island-structured sub-populations for entangled ones — a merging-native
axis the panmixia-assuming literature lacks.
- src/knowledge/mating_system.py + experiment.py dispatch (kind: mating_system)
- configs/layer1/E14.yaml (breadth x K sweep, 20 reps, bitwise-reproducible)
- figures/plot_E14.py; results/E14/ (figure, README, manifest, resolved config)
- tests/test_mating_system.py (+5, 147 green); make layer1 wired
- folded into both papers (full + accessible) as the third §5 result
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Update the "flagged not claimed" paragraph to a reported result: after
Git Re-Basin permutation alignment, independent-init barriers drop ~98%
(coordinate artefact) while conflicting-task barriers lose 0% (residual
0.49, genuine reproductive isolation), and the residual traces the
isolation cliff with task conflict. Also threads the real-weight
confirmation through the abstract (claim v + the reproducible-models
sentence) and the §13 ledger, and drops the now-done Git Re-Basin item
from the "still to engage" note.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Reframe of v5 into a population-genetic control theory for agent societies (leads
with evolution-of-sex, concedes collapse=drift up front), positioned against the
2025-26 landscape (Multiagent-Finetuning, GENOME, M2N2, DGM, Pari 2024, Zhou 2026,
Git Re-Basin) with an explicit concede/own ledger. Folds in E12 as the headline
NEW modelling result: a dedicated 'The limit of sex: model speciation' section
(compatible -> outbreeding depression -> hybrid inviability; the isolation cliff
set by epistasis not divergence alone; the Orr-Turelli snowball; the route-don't-
merge design rule), threaded through the abstract (5th load-bearing claim) and the
what's-ours ledger. New draft file; v5 preserved.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>