Evolution Autoencodes Life's Interactions as Species that are Decoded into Ecosystems

The continuity of life and its evolution, we have proposed, emerge from an interactive group process termed Survival-of-the-Fitted. This process supplants the Darwinian theory of individual struggle and Survival-of-the-Fittest as the primary mechanism of evolution. Here, we propose that Survival-of-the-Fitted results from a natural process functionally related to computer autoencoding. Autoencoding is a machine-learning technique for extracting a compact representation of the essential features of input data; dimensionality reduction by autoencoding establishes a code that enables a variety of applications based on decoding of the relevant data. We establish the following points: (1) We define a species by its species interaction code, which consists of the fundamental, core interactions of the species with its external and internal environments; core interactions are encoded by multi-scale networks including molecules-cells-organisms. (2) Evolution proceeds by sustainable changes in species interaction codes; these changing codes both reflect and construct the species environment. The survival of species is computed by what we term Natural Autoencoding: arrays of input interactions generate species codes, which survive by decoding into networks of sustained ecosystem interactions. DNA is only one element in Natural Autoencoding. (3) Natural Autoencoding and artificial autoencoding processes manifest defined similarities and differences. Survival-of-the-Fitted by Natural Autoencoding sheds a new light on the mechanism of evolution and explains why a habitable biosphere requires a diversity of fitted group interactions.