An Analytically Solvable Model for Rapid Evolution of Modular Structure
Figure 2
Speedup of evolution under MVG.
(A) A schematic view of fitness as a function of generations in evolution under MVG and fixed (constant) goal (FG). Evolution time (TMVG and TFG) is defined as the median number of generations it takes to achieve the goal (i.e. reach a perfect solution) starting from random initial genomes. (B) Speedup of evolution under MVG based on simulations of logic circuits with goals of increasing complexity (see [19]). The speedup is defined as evolution time under a fixed goal, divided by evolution time under MVG that switches between the same goal and other modularly related goals: S = TFG/TMVG. Shown is the speedup S versus the evolution time under fixed goal (TFG). Speedup scales approximately as a power law S∼(TFG) α with an exponent α = 0.7±0.1. Thus, the harder the goal the larger the speedup.