Like, I think that the solution space in both cases is effectively unbounded and traversable in any direction, with only a tiny number of solutions that have ever been instantiated at any given point (in evolutionary history/in the training process), and at each iteration there are tons of “particles” (genomes/circuits) trying out new configurations. Plus if you account for the fact that the configuration space can get bigger over time (genomes can grow longer/agents can accumulate experiences) then I think you can really just keep on finding new configurations ’til the cows come home. Yes, the likelihood of ever instantiating the same one twice is tiny, but instantiating the same trait/behavior twice? Happens all the time, even within the same lineage. Looks like in biology, there’s even a name for it!
If there’s a gene in the population and a totally new mutation arises, now you have both the original and the mutated version floating somewhere in the population, which slightly expands the space of explored genomes (err, “slightly” relative to the exponentially-big space of all possible genomes). Even if that mutated version takes over because it increases fitness in a niche this century, that niche could easily change next century, and there’s so much mutation going on that I don’t see why the original variant couldn’t arise again. Come to think of it, the constant changeover of environmental circumstances in evolution kinda reminds me of nonstationarity in RL...
What does that correspond to?
Like, I think that the solution space in both cases is effectively unbounded and traversable in any direction, with only a tiny number of solutions that have ever been instantiated at any given point (in evolutionary history/in the training process), and at each iteration there are tons of “particles” (genomes/circuits) trying out new configurations. Plus if you account for the fact that the configuration space can get bigger over time (genomes can grow longer/agents can accumulate experiences) then I think you can really just keep on finding new configurations ’til the cows come home. Yes, the likelihood of ever instantiating the same one twice is tiny, but instantiating the same trait/behavior twice? Happens all the time, even within the same lineage. Looks like in biology, there’s even a name for it!
If there’s a gene in the population and a totally new mutation arises, now you have both the original and the mutated version floating somewhere in the population, which slightly expands the space of explored genomes (err, “slightly” relative to the exponentially-big space of all possible genomes). Even if that mutated version takes over because it increases fitness in a niche this century, that niche could easily change next century, and there’s so much mutation going on that I don’t see why the original variant couldn’t arise again. Come to think of it, the constant changeover of environmental circumstances in evolution kinda reminds me of nonstationarity in RL...