?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Adc&rft.title=Degenerate+neutrality+creates+evolvable+fitness+landscapes&rft.creator=Whitacre%2C+Dr+James+M&rft.creator=Bender%2C+Dr+Axel&rft.subject=Complexity+Theory&rft.subject=Theoretical+Biology&rft.subject=Evolution&rft.subject=Artificial+Intelligence&rft.description=Understanding+how+systems+can+be+designed+to+be+evolvable+is+fundamental+to+research+in+optimization%2C+evolution%2C+and+complex+systems+science.+Many+researchers+have+thus+recognized+the+importance+of+evolvability%2C+i.e.+the+ability+to+find+new+variants+of+higher+fitness%2C+in+the+fields+of+biological+evolution+and+evolutionary+computation.++Recent+studies+by+Ciliberti+et+al+(Proc.+Nat.+Acad.+Sci.%2C+2007)+and+Wagner+(Proc.+R.+Soc.+B.%2C+2008)+propose+a+potentially+important+link+between+the+robustness+and+the+evolvability+of+a+system.+In+particular%2C+it+has+been+suggested+that+robustness+may+actually+lead+to+the+emergence+of+evolvability.+Here+we+study+two+design+principles%2C+redundancy+and+degeneracy%2C+for+achieving+robustness+and+we+show+that+they+have+a+dramatically+different+impact+on+the+evolvability+of+the+system.+In+particular%2C+purely+redundant+systems+are+found+to+have+very+little+evolvability+while+systems+with+degeneracy%2C+i.e.+distributed+robustness%2C+can+be+orders+of+magnitude+more+evolvable.+These+results+offer+insights+into+the+general+principles+for+achieving+evolvability+and+may+prove+to+be+an+important+step+forward+in+the+pursuit+of+evolvable+representations+in+evolutionary+computation.+&rft.date=2009-07-13&rft.type=Conference+Paper&rft.type=PeerReviewed&rft.format=application%2Fpdf&rft.identifier=http%3A%2F%2Fcogprints.org%2F6576%2F1%2FDegeneracy_Final.pdf&rft.identifier=++Whitacre%2C+Dr+James+M+and+Bender%2C+Dr+Axel++(2009)+Degenerate+neutrality+creates+evolvable+fitness+landscapes.++%5BConference+Paper%5D++++(In+Press)++&rft.relation=http%3A%2F%2Fcogprints.org%2F6576%2F