title: Evolution of biological complexity.
abstract: To make a case for or against a trend in the evolution of complexity in biological evolution, complexity needs to be both rigorously defined and measurable. A recent information-theoretic (but intuitively evident) definition identifies genomic complexity with the amount of information a sequence stores about its environment. We investigate the evolution of genomic complexity in populations of digital organisms and monitor in detail the evolutionary transitions that increase complexity. We show that, because natural selection forces genomes to behave as a natural "Maxwell Demon," within a fixed environment, genomic complexity is forced to increase.
authors.affiliation: Kellogg Radiation Laboratory 106-38, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA. adami@krl.caltech.edu
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Adami
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ofria
authors.forename: T C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Collier
mesh_terms: D005075:Biological Evolution; D001695:Biology / Q000379:methods; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics; D019277:Entropy; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005580:Fossils; D016678:Genome; D007257:Information Theory; D008957:Models, Genetic; D015233:Models, Statistical
chemical_list: D004247:DNA