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According to the fundamental theorem of biology (due to Fisher, 1930) evolution, like the GA-model, strives to a maximum in mean fitness. Briefly, the theorem states that: the rate of increase of mean fitness of any organism at any time is equal to its variance at that time. And a process that maximises something is goal seeking and may therefore be directed towards a maximum or a goal.
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the fundamental theorem of biology?
that's quite a title.
what is "fitness" according to this?
what does it mean to "strive" in this context?
i do not understand the equivalence you note between "fitness" and "variance"
the definition of "goal seeking" seems to me somewhere between tautological (you observe a particular pattern. you note the pattern appears to be directed. you then impute that directedness to the pattern itself--when it seems to me that the notion of "goal-seeking" is more about the observer's viewpoint and perspective on what is observed than it is about the data)
what i really dont understand is the time-frame. it sounds like you are modelling emergent characteristics within complex systems. that may provide a way to think about evolution (there is a ton of recent work influenced by notions of biological autonomy that uses this kind of information in this way--but as a metaphor, a conceptual device that you would use to rethink what you are looking for/considering when you try to research evolution/emergence--not as a model for evolution itself)
if you collapse questions of emergent characteristics/properties into evolution in general, you end up recapitulating something like lamarck.
this all seems terribly problematic when you try to move from the mathematical simulation to a viable modelling of biological evolution.
but maybe i am still not understanding--so.
seems to me like the fundamental theorem