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LTT: Mak Pedroso
October 13, 2020 @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm EDT
Mak Pedroso, Center Visiting Fellow
Wicked Nature: Coping with Uncertainty through Redundancy
This talk will be held via Zoom and pre-registration is required. Registration link: https://pitt.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_T-Z7lis2QqSLhbvhVRQnrg
ABSTRACT: In their struggle for existence, organisms grapple with high levels of uncertainty since they possess limited information about their environments. As a result, the evolutionary fate of lineages largely depends on the ability of their members to adopt successful strategies while accessing a restricted amount of information about their selective environments. This talk will focus on a less discussed evolutionary strategy for coping with environmental uncertainty called “redundancy.” Specifically, the redundant members of biological groups can be thought of as engaging in “independent bets.” As a result, redundancy enables biological systems to offset the costs associated with environmental uncertainty. A better understanding of the phenomenon of redundancy is likely to impact other key theoretical issues in biology, including the evolution of cooperation and transitions in individuality, and the role of redundancy in complex systems, be they biological or not.