“Eyesight as a replicator, with genes as its vehicle” by AnnaSalamon
From LessWrong (30+ Karma) · 24:32
Show by LessWrong
Or: The payload lens on Darwin Tl;dr: What is the most natural teleological shorthand to use, when thinking about evolution? The “gene-centered view” of e.g. Dawkins says: genes are “trying” to increase the number of exact copies of themselves. And organisms are “vehicles” genes use to survive. The “payload lens” (which I’ll be pitching) says: adaptive payloads (such as eyesight or fair meiosis) are “trying” to become deeper, stabler attractor basins that can team up with other adaptive payloads. And genes are “vehicles” these payloads use to survive. Epistemic status: I haven’t done much of a lit search, so I’m claiming neither that any of this is original nor that it is vetted/established; I’m laying it out partly because I want to be able to build on it in some later essays about what we humans are (and what some possible AIs might be) other than optimizers. (However, I don’t mostly get to that here; and I hope this stuff may also be interesting in its own right.) Angles on Darwin Darwinian evolution (as operationalized by Lewontin in his 1970 paper The Units of Selection, which helped organize the field) is the theory that intricate adaptations (such as those [...] ---Outline:(01:15) Angles on Darwin(02:25) Genes as replicators(03:24) Adaptive payloads as replicators(04:56) Example: eyesight(05:21) Eyesight is a stable attractor(07:07) The eyesight of Theseus(09:34) Example: meiotic fairness as replicator(12:09) How much of biological evolution makes more sense through the payload lens?(12:59) "Momentum" examples probably include most cases where multiple genes combine to make a "simple" or "form-like" effect(15:14) Pathways between adaptations(15:59) Payload geometry: islands or ridge-lines?(17:12) Payloads change which other payloads are worth it(17:50) Toeholds without genes: The Baldwin effect(20:06) Cascades of toeholds(21:40) Why I care(21:52) A toy model of something corrigibility-adjacent(22:58) A hint at where simple structures and functions may come from(23:15) What am I? What am I for? The original text contained 6 footnotes which were omitted from this narration. --- First published: November 10th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/FLAWND7tXutaPw9BQ/eyesight-as-a-replicator-with-genes-as-its-vehicle --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. ---Images from the article:Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.
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