title: Objects that make objects: the population dynamics of structural complexity.
abstract: To analyse the evolutionary emergence of structural complexity in physical processes, we introduce a general, but tractable, model of objects that interact to produce new objects. Since the objects--epsilon-machines--have well-defined structural properties, we demonstrate that complexity in the resulting population dynamical system emerges on several distinct organizational scales during evolution--from individuals to nested levels of mutually self-sustaining interaction. The evolution to increased organization is dominated by the spontaneous creation of structural hierarchies and this, in turn, is facilitated by the innovation and maintenance of relatively low-complexity, but general individuals.
authors.affiliation: Center for Computational Science and Engineering and Department of Physics, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA. chaos@cse.ucdavis.edu
authors.forename: James P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Crutchfield
authors.forename: Olof
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Görnerup
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D003198:Computer Simulation; D008433:Mathematics; D008954:Models, Biological; D011157:Population Dynamics