Giorgio Gilestro
0f7b775ae5
The culmination. A finite population of agents (genotypes, L loci) evolves
on a rugged NK landscape that IS reality (knowledge/dynamic_society.py),
composing the four operators the whole study built toward: grounding,
directed recombination (sex), quality-diversity selection, and mutation.
Grounding is made load-bearing via the consensus-conformity (self-
consumption) mechanism (GG decision): selection acts on
g*true_fitness + (1-g)*conformity, where conformity = agreement with the
population's own consensus, so at g=0 the society optimises fitting-the-
crowd rather than reality.
4-arm ablation (12 reps), each breaking distinctly, only the full society
climbing (global_opt ~ 0.79):
- full 0.78 climbs to the optimum, diversity maintained longest
- no_sex 0.77 can't recombine to escape local optima
- no_diversity 0.74 greedy: collapses diversity fastest, worse local optimum
- no_grounding 0.48 self-consumption collapse to an unfit consensus
(trains on the crowd -> confident-but-wrong mean;
conformity-true gap ~ 0.5)
This integrates E1-E6 + the learning kernel + E7-E10 into one system and
shows the Lamarckian society needs ALL of grounding + directed sex +
diversity: on a rugged landscape you need diversity to explore basins, sex
to recombine them, and grounding to select on reality -- remove any one and
you fail differently. Closes the C3 vertical claim analytically; the LLM
rung remains the eventual empirical instantiation.
New: knowledge/dynamic_society.py, configs/layer1/E11.yaml, figures/
plot_E11.py, README, tests/test_dynamic_society.py (+5). kind:
dynamic_society dispatch; make layer1 wired. 122 tests green.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
3.3 KiB
E11 — the dynamic Lamarckian society: the vertical claim (C3)
Claim tested. The culmination. Everything before was a single operator; the society's load-bearing, un-preempted claim is that composing them makes general capability climb over generations while specialties are re-earned, and that every operator is necessary — remove one and it breaks. This is blueprint C3, the "vertical."
Setup. A finite population of N=60 agents (genotypes of L=12 biallelic loci) evolves on a
rugged Kauffman NK landscape (K=8) that is reality. Each generation composes: grounding,
directed recombination (sex), quality-diversity selection, and mutation. Grounding is made
load-bearing by the consensus-conformity (self-consumption) mechanism — selection acts on
g·true_fitness + (1−g)·conformity, where conformity = agreement with the population's own consensus,
so at g=0 the society optimises fitting-the-crowd rather than reality. A 4-arm ablation, 12
replicate landscapes, 80 generations.
Symbols
- agent = a model (a genotype); reality = the NK fitness landscape; grounding
g= share of the selection signal that is real fitness vs conformity. - directed sex = recombine many parents + keep the fittest offspring (E10). quality-diversity = select for capability and novelty, so specialties persist.
- conformity − true fitness = how far the population's mutual agreement exceeds its real capability (the self-consumption "delusion" signature).
The three panels (over generations)
- The vertical climb. Best real capability: the full society (green) climbs to the global
optimum (≈0.78 of 0.79), while no_grounding (red) collapses to a fit-looking but poor
consensus (0.48).
no_sexandno_diversityplateau below the full society. - Specialties maintained. Population diversity: the full society explores longest (diversity
decays slowly as it searches), while every ablation collapses diversity fast —
no_groundingalmost immediately. - Self-consumption signature. Conformity minus true fitness: largest for
no_grounding— the population strongly agrees while being wrong, the signature of training on its own consensus.
Takeaway — every operator is load-bearing
- full → climbs to the optimum with diversity maintained. The vertical claim.
- no_grounding → self-consumption collapse to an unfit consensus (train on the crowd → regress to a confident, wrong mean).
- no_sex → can't recombine complementary specialists to escape local optima → plateaus below full.
- no_diversity (greedy) → collapses diversity fastest, gets stuck at a worse local optimum.
This integrates the whole study — E1–E6 (collapse/grounding/selection), the learning kernel, and E7–E10 (sexual transmission) — into one system, and shows the Lamarckian society needs all of grounding + directed sex + diversity to climb without collapsing. On a rugged landscape you need diversity to explore basins, sex to recombine them, and grounding to select on reality; remove any and you fail differently. Falsifier (not triggered): if any ablation had matched the full society, or the full society had failed to exceed every ablation, the integration claim would fail.