Evolving Coordinated Behavior by Maximizing Information Structure

Abstract

Embodied systems actively structure information sampled by their sensors as they engage in sensorimotor interactions with their environment. Can information structure serve as an evolutionary principle that shapes behavior and leads to increased coordination? Here we address this question by attempting to evolve coordinated behavior in a simulated creature subjected to behavioral and information-theoretical cost functions. Our results show that maximizing information structure is highly effective in generating coordinated behavior, providing further support for a potential central role of actively generated information structure in embodied cognition.