Evolution of Complexity: Introduction to the Workshop

Abstract

The evolution of complexity has been a central theme for Biology and Artificial Life (Bonner, 1988; Bedau et al., 2000). Complexification has been interpreted in different ways: as a process of diversification between evolving units (Bonner, 1988) or as a scaling process that is related to the idea of transitions between different levels of complexity (Smith and Szathmary, 1995). There have been previous workshops on this topic, e.g. (Heylighen et al., 1999; Lenaerts et al., 2002), but many open questions still remain. Trying to answer these questions from a general perspective might not immediately produce concrete answers for the different fields that are interested in this topic. Consequently, this workshop is organised with a particular focus in mind: The emergence of complexity through evolutionary mechanisms. Primarily we want to have a discussion on evolutionary and related dynamics as mechanisms for producing complexity. Furthermore, we want to bring together historical and novel research in this context.