Evolution via natural selection is a really good explanation for how we gradually got successively more complex biological organisms. Perhaps unsurprisingly, there have long been efforts to apply the same general mechanism to the development of ever more complex technologies. One domain where this has been studied a bit is in computer programming. Let’s take a look at that literature to see how well the framework of biological evolution maps to (one form of) technological progress.

This podcast is an audio read through of the (initial version of the) article "Progress in Programming as Evolution", published on New Things Under the Sun.

Articles mentioned:

Arthur, W. Brian, and Wolfgang Polak. 2006. The evolution of technology within a simple computer model. Complexity11(5): 23-31. https://doi.org/10.1002/cplx.20130

Miu, Elena, Ned Gulley, Kevin N. Laland, and Luke Rendell. 2018. Innovation and cumulative culture through tweaks and leaps in online programming contests. Nature Communications 9: 2321. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-04494-0

Miu, Elena, Ned Gulley, Kevin N. Laland, and Luke Rendell. 2020. Flexible learning, rather than inveterate innovation or copying, drives cumulative knowledge gain. Science Advances 6(23): eaaz0286. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aaz0286

Valverde, Sergi and Ricard V. Solé. 2015. Punctuated equilibrium in the large-scale evolution of programming languages. Journal of the Royal Society Interface 12: 20150249. http://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2015.0249