7.2 Does complexity increase over evolution?

7.2.2 Co-adaptation

Wimsatt [30], suggests that the co-adaption of one of an organism's mechanisms for several purposes (or as sub-mechanisms of other mechanisms) is a source of the evolution of its `descriptive' complexity. He relates the dividing up a description of such an organism into different levels as an attempt to simplify such a description (albeit at an inevitable cost to the complete picture). This closely corresponds to what I have called biological analytic complexity, with a simple (in the evolutionary analytic sense) explanation. Further he is pointing out how we attempt to adopt a base language that will actually simplify our description for a particular purpose and why this may be inherently difficult.

What is Complexity? - The philosophy of complexity per se with application to some examples in evolution - 14 JUN 95

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