8:30-9:00 EST Steve Frank - The evolutionary paradox of robustness, genome overwiring, and analogies with deep learning

I start with the paradox of robustness, which is roughly: Greater protection from errors at the system level leads to more errors at the component level.

The paradox of robustness may be an important force shaping the architecture of evolutionary systems.

I then turn to the question: Why are genomes overwired? By which I mean that genetic regulatory networks seem to be more deeply and densely connected than one might expect.

I suggest that the paradox of robustness may explain some of the observed complexity in genetic networks.

Finally, I ask: What are the consequences of deeply and densely connected genetic networks? That question brings up to possible links between genetic networks, evolutionary dynamics, and learning dynamics in the deep neural networks of modern AI.