Natural Selection as an Inhibitor of Genetic Diversity

Abstract

In a recent series of papers a surprisingly strong connection was discovered between standard evolutionary models of natural selection and Multiplicative Weights Updates Algorithm, a ubiquitous model of online learning and optimization. These papers establish that, under specific assumptions, mathematical models of biological evolution can be reduced to studying discrete replicator dynamics, a close variant of MWUA, in coordination games. This connection allows for introducing insights from game theoretic dynamics into the field of mathematical biology.