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>
42 lines
3.3 KiB
Markdown
42 lines
3.3 KiB
Markdown
# E11 — the dynamic Lamarckian society: the vertical claim (C3)
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**Claim tested.** The culmination. Everything before was a *single operator*; the society's
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load-bearing, un-preempted claim is that composing them makes **general capability climb over
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generations while specialties are re-earned**, and that **every operator is necessary** — remove one
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and it breaks. This is blueprint C3, the "vertical."
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**Setup.** A finite population of `N=60` agents (genotypes of `L=12` biallelic loci) evolves on a
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**rugged Kauffman NK landscape** (`K=8`) that *is* reality. Each generation composes: grounding,
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**directed recombination (sex)**, **quality-diversity selection**, and mutation. Grounding is made
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load-bearing by the **consensus-conformity (self-consumption)** mechanism — selection acts on
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`g·true_fitness + (1−g)·conformity`, where conformity = agreement with the population's own consensus,
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so at `g=0` the society optimises fitting-the-crowd rather than reality. A 4-arm ablation, 12
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replicate landscapes, 80 generations.
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### Symbols
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- **agent** = a model (a genotype); **reality** = the NK fitness landscape; **grounding `g`** = share of the selection signal that is real fitness vs conformity.
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- **directed sex** = recombine many parents + keep the fittest offspring (E10). **quality-diversity** = select for capability *and* novelty, so specialties persist.
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- **conformity − true fitness** = how far the population's mutual agreement exceeds its real capability (the self-consumption "delusion" signature).
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### The three panels (over generations)
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1. **The vertical climb.** Best real capability: the **full society (green) climbs to the global
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optimum** (≈0.78 of 0.79), while **no_grounding (red) collapses** to a fit-looking but poor
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consensus (0.48). `no_sex` and `no_diversity` plateau *below* the full society.
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2. **Specialties maintained.** Population diversity: the **full society explores longest** (diversity
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decays slowly as it searches), while every ablation collapses diversity fast — `no_grounding`
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almost immediately.
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3. **Self-consumption signature.** Conformity minus true fitness: **largest for `no_grounding`** — the
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population strongly *agrees* while being *wrong*, the signature of training on its own consensus.
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### Takeaway — every operator is load-bearing
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- **full** → climbs to the optimum with diversity maintained. **The vertical claim.**
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- **no_grounding** → self-consumption collapse to an unfit consensus (train on the crowd → regress to a confident, wrong mean).
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- **no_sex** → can't recombine complementary specialists to escape local optima → plateaus below full.
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- **no_diversity (greedy)** → collapses diversity fastest, gets stuck at a *worse* local optimum.
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This integrates the whole study — E1–E6 (collapse/grounding/selection), the learning kernel, and
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E7–E10 (sexual transmission) — into one system, and shows the Lamarckian society needs **all** of
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grounding + directed sex + diversity to climb without collapsing. On a rugged landscape you need
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diversity to explore basins, sex to recombine them, and grounding to select on reality; remove any and
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you fail differently. **Falsifier (not triggered):** if any ablation had matched the full society, or
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the full society had failed to exceed every ablation, the integration claim would fail.
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