Evolutionary transitions problem

The problem of evolutionary transition is to formulate a coherent theory that can explain these transitions and guide evaluation of empirical evidence for each. Part of this work involves describing units of evolution adequate to explain the evolutionary origin of new levels and not merely evolution at levels (Griesemer, 2000c). The key insight into the units problem afforded by consideration of evolutionary transition is that units of evolution themselves have an evolutionary history. Differently put, there is a temporal or processual dimension to the units problem as well as spatial and functional dimensions. Because the spatial and functional perspectives on units mentioned above were not articulated with the evolutionary transition problem in mind, they are not clearly suited to its theoretical solution. In particular, if a perspective assumes the existence of levels of organization or embeds assumptions about these products of evolution in their analysis of units, then it has assumed what is to be shown by a theory of evolutionary transition. 

In the last 20 years, a new problem, the evolutionary origin of levels of organization, or evolutionary transition, has been added to those celebrated since Darwin (Buss, 1987). In their recent book, The Major Transitions in Evolution, Maynard Smith and Szathmary (1995, p. 6) identified what they considered to be eight major originations of new levels of organization (Table 11.1). For most of these, they claimed a common feature . .. entities that were capable of independent replication before the transition... 

Notice that the common feature of many evolutionary transitions identified by Maynard Smith and Szathmary involves a change in the status of replicators. Once the replication of a class of entities becomes dependent on a larger whole, they do not become independent replicators again. So new replicators at the emergent level must exist and replicate independently in order for there to be a still higher level transition. Given the nature of replicators as analyzed by both Dawkins and Hull, there is a problem with this characterization of the common feature only one or possibly two evolutionary transitions are at all likely to have occurred in the history of life. 

I offer a different and complementary perspective on units which accommodates developmental processes explicitly and which articulates the intimate relationship between units of hereditary transmission and developmental expression. I argue that a process perspective on the temporal dimension of the transition problem, focusing on the propagation of developmental capacities, is a helpful addition to the spatial and functional perspectives. Reproduction is the process that, in general, forms the basis for evolution at a level and also for evolutionary transition to new levels. Processes of inheritance and replication can be understood as special cases of reproduction. In order to formulate a view of how processes of development and hereditary propagation are intertwined in reproduction, let us consider development further. 

The problems facing civilization and its development are so broad and multifaceted that the aspects considered here are but a small part of the wider field of scientific and methodical studies of the processes involved in the interation between nature and society. The proposed adaptive evolutionary scheme of combining monitoring data with the results of simulation modeling may turn out to be a mechanism to facilitate the transition to sustainable development. 

Cain, J., Epistemic and community transition in American evolutionary studies the Committee on Common Problems of Genetics, Paleontology, and Systematics (1942-1949), Stud. Hist. Philos. Biol. Biomed. ScL, 33, 283-313, 2002. 

Only if the internal dynamics within the macrosocieties and the external dynamics between them, including their difficulties and possible instabilities, are understood and the problems arising are regarded as problems to be solved through cooperation between the societies, can there exist a chance of solving the present fundamental coexistence problem of mankind The aim has to be a substitution of the traditional disastrous dynamics of quasi-periodic transitions between phases of peace, tension and war by a new smooth and evolutionary dynamics avoiding phases of rapid and too often catastrophic change. 

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