Environments conducive to evolution of modularity

Abstract

Modularity has been recognised as one of the crucial aspects of natural complex systems. Since these are results of evolution, it has been argued that modular systems must have selective advantages over their monolithic counterparts. Simulation results with artificial neuro-evolutionary complex systems, however, are indecisive in this regard. It has been shown that advantages of modularity, if judged on a static task, in these systems are very much dependent on various factors involved in the training of these systems. We present a couple of dynamic environments and argue that environments like these might be partly responsible for the evolution of modular systems. These environments allow for a better, more direct use of structural information present within modular systems hence limit the influence of other factors. We support these arguments with the help of a co-evolutionary model and a fitness measure based on system performance in these dynamic environments. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.