MachineSex/results/E8/README.md
Giorgio Gilestro 62c68d6c8c society: multi-locus recombination frame — the vertical claim (E7/E8)
Enter the Lamarckian society with a robust theoretical frame. The single-
locus, fixed-p* model can only express recovery toward a ceiling; the
society's load-bearing claim is vertical -- capability that EXCEEDS any
component. Generalize knowledge to a distribution over genotypes (L
biallelic loci, K=2^L, additive fitness = # correct loci), reusing all the
K-mode machinery. The one new operator is recombination: free recombination
sends p -> product of per-locus marginals (linkage equilibrium).

E8 (star, kind: society) -- the vertical claim / Fisher-Muller: decorrelated
PARENTS (specialists, expert on their loci, agnostic elsewhere) are
recombined; sexual merge assembles a genotype fitter than any parent,
climbing to the optimum (12/12, a genotype no parent had) as parent count
grows and rho->0, while the best single parent (~8.7) and the mean-mixture
"model soup" (~11.6) plateau below. Reuses make_retention_matrix (locus
mastery replaces tail-item retention).

E7 (kind: genotype_lineage) -- the advantage of sex: a single population
adapts toward the optimum; the sexual lineage adapts faster than asexual
(clonal interference) by keeping loci in linkage equilibrium (LD->0 vs LD
spike). Honest scope: a speed advantage, not a permanent Muller's-ratchet
gap (subtle to force); E8 carries the headline.

Metaphor shift (per GG): the society is sexual reproduction with UNBOUNDED
parents, not teacher->pupil. Teacher->pupil caps at the ceiling; n-parent
recombination is combinatorial and generative, and unlike biology there is
no two-parent limit. Collapse = asexual degradation; the cure = sex. This
unifies E4 (merge != average) + E6 (irreversibility) under evolution-of-sex
theory and reaches ground Riis's single-locus n-grams cannot.

New: knowledge/{genotype,genotype_lineage,society}.py, configs/layer1/{E7,
E8}.yaml, figures/plot_{E7,E8}.py, READMEs, tests/test_genotype.py (+7).
experiment.py dispatch (kind in {genotype_lineage, society}); make layer1
wired. 112 tests green.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-05 10:51:41 +01:00

35 lines
2.8 KiB
Markdown
Raw Blame History

This file contains ambiguous Unicode characters

This file contains Unicode characters that might be confused with other characters. If you think that this is intentional, you can safely ignore this warning. Use the Escape button to reveal them.

# E8 — the vertical claim: n-parent recombination exceeds any parent (FisherMuller)
**Claim tested.** The society's headline, and the thing no fixed-`p*` model could express: can an
offspring recombined from **many decorrelated parents** be *fitter than any parent* — capability that
**exceeds** every component, not merely recovers a ceiling?
**Setup.** A capability is a **genotype** of `L=12` biallelic loci; fitness = number of correct
loci; the optimum (all-correct, fitness 12) is a genotype **no parent possesses**. Each *parent* is a
specialist: confident-correct (`hi=0.9`) on the loci it has mastered, agnostic (`lo=0.45`) on the
rest. Which loci each masters comes from the exact shared-switch construction, so **parent count
`K_T`** and **decorrelation `ρ`** are clean, independently-swept knobs. Deployed capability = fitness
of the **mode** (most-probable) genotype — what you would ship. 40 replicates.
### Symbols
- **parent** = a specialist model; **offspring** = the recombined model; **`K_T`** = number of parents (unbounded — biological sex is stuck at 2; model merging is not).
- **`ρ`** = correlation of which loci parents master (0 = complementary, 1 = identical clones).
- **best parent** = fittest single specialist · **average** = mean-mixture "model soup" (combine, don't recombine) · **sexual** = union-preserving recombination (assemble the best allele of each locus).
### The two panels
1. **Recombination exceeds any parent (ρ=0).** Deployed capability vs `K_T`: **sexual (red) climbs
to the optimum (12)** as parents accumulate — a genotype none of them had — while the **best single
parent (grey) plateaus at ~8.7** and the **model soup (blue) reaches ~11.6** but is beaten by
sexual at every `K_T` (and badly at small `K_T`: at 2 parents, sexual 9.0 vs soup 7.2 vs best 6.9).
2. **Decorrelation is the fuel.** Sexual capability vs `K_T` for `ρ ∈ {0, 0.5, 1}`: decorrelated
parents (`ρ=0`) climb to the optimum; identical clones (`ρ=1`) buy nothing (flat at ~6). The
benefit is *combinatorial reach across complementary parents*, not merely "more models".
### Takeaway
This is the FisherMuller effect for AI: recombination assembles beneficial variants that live in
*different* parents into an offspring fitter than any of them. It is the rigorous, un-preempted core
of the Lamarckian society — collapse is asexual degradation; the cure is **sex, with no parent
limit.** It reframes model merging from "averaging weights" to "meiotic reassortment", and it is the
mechanism by which general capability can *climb while each specialty is re-earned and exceeded.* The
dynamic version (why a lone lineage cannot do this) is E7. **Falsifier (not triggered):** if sexual
never exceeded the best parent, or averaging matched it, the vertical claim would fail.