Rodrick Wallace, PhD
Adaptation, punctuation, and rate distortion: 
non-cognitive 'learning plateaus' in evolutionary process
(38K, LaTex2e)

ABSTRACT.  Extending recent information-theoretic phase transition approaches to 
evolutionary and cognitive process via the Rate Distortion Theorem in 
the circumstance of interaction with a structured environment suggests 
that learning plateaus in cognitive systems and punctuated equilibria 
in evolutionary process are formally analogous, even though evolution 
is most certainly not cognitive. The result is curiously direct, and 
implies that evolutionary theories which do not produce punctuation 
are likely to be seriously incomplete