I resonate with this framing of evolution as an optimizer and I think we can extend this perspective even further.
Evolution optimizes for genetic fitness, yes. But simultaneously, cultural systems optimize for memetic fitness, markets optimize for economic fitness, and technological systems increasingly optimize for their own forms of fitness. Each layer creates selection pressures that ripple through the others in complex feedback loops. It isn’t necessarily that evolution is the only thing happening, it may be the outermost value function that exists but there’s so much nesting here as well.
There’s only modelling and what is being modelled and these things are happening everywhere all at once. I feel like I fully agree with what you said but I guess for me an interesting point is about what basis to look at it from.
I resonate with this framing of evolution as an optimizer and I think we can extend this perspective even further.
Evolution optimizes for genetic fitness, yes. But simultaneously, cultural systems optimize for memetic fitness, markets optimize for economic fitness, and technological systems increasingly optimize for their own forms of fitness. Each layer creates selection pressures that ripple through the others in complex feedback loops. It isn’t necessarily that evolution is the only thing happening, it may be the outermost value function that exists but there’s so much nesting here as well.
There’s only modelling and what is being modelled and these things are happening everywhere all at once. I feel like I fully agree with what you said but I guess for me an interesting point is about what basis to look at it from.