Laboratory of Experimental Psychology, Brain and Cognition Unit, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
Institute of Philosophy, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.
J R Soc Interface. 2018 Apr;15(141). doi: 10.1098/rsif.2017.0685.
In evolutionary biology, niche construction is sometimes described as a genuine evolutionary process whereby organisms, through their activities and regulatory mechanisms, modify their environment such as to steer their own evolutionary trajectory, and that of other species. There is ongoing debate, however, on the extent to which niche construction ought to be considered a bona fide evolutionary force, on a par with natural selection. Recent formulations of the variational free-energy principle as applied to the life sciences describe the properties of living systems, and their selection in evolution, in terms of variational inference. We argue that niche construction can be described using a variational approach. We propose new arguments to support the niche construction perspective, and to extend the variational approach to niche construction to current perspectives in various scientific fields.
在进化生物学中，生态位构建有时被描述为一种真正的进化过程，通过生物体的活动和调节机制，改变它们的环境，从而引导它们自己的进化轨迹，以及其他物种的进化轨迹。然而，关于生态位构建在多大程度上应该被视为一种真正的进化力量，与自然选择相当，仍存在争议。最近将变分自由能原理应用于生命科学的表述，从变分推断的角度描述了生命系统的特性及其在进化中的选择。我们认为可以使用变分方法来描述生态位构建。我们提出了新的论据来支持生态位构建的观点，并将变分方法扩展到生态位构建，以支持各个科学领域的当前观点。
