Cooperating Mini-Brains Show How Intelligence Evolved
Live Science (04/10/12) Stephanie Pappas
Trinity College Dublin researchers recently developed computer simulation experiments to determine how human brains evolved intelligence. The researchers created artificial neural networks to serve as mini-brains. The networks were given challenging cooperative tasks and the brains were forced to work together, evolving the virtual equivalent of increased brainpower over generations. "It is the transition to a cooperative group that can lead to maximum selection for intelligence," says Trinity's Luke McNally. The neural networks were programmed to evolve, producing random mutations that can introduce extra nodes into the network. The researchers assigned two games for the networks to play, one that tests how temptation can affect group goals, and one that tests how teamwork can benefit the group. The researchers then created 10 experiments in which 50,000 generations of neural networks played the games. Intelligence was measured by the number of nodes added in each network as the players evolved over time. The researchers found that the networks evolved strategies similar to those seen when humans play the games with other humans. "What this indicates is that in species ancestral to humans, it could have been the transition to more cooperative societies that drove the evolution of our brains," McNally says.
Live Science (04/10/12) Stephanie Pappas
Trinity College Dublin researchers recently developed computer simulation experiments to determine how human brains evolved intelligence. The researchers created artificial neural networks to serve as mini-brains. The networks were given challenging cooperative tasks and the brains were forced to work together, evolving the virtual equivalent of increased brainpower over generations. "It is the transition to a cooperative group that can lead to maximum selection for intelligence," says Trinity's Luke McNally. The neural networks were programmed to evolve, producing random mutations that can introduce extra nodes into the network. The researchers assigned two games for the networks to play, one that tests how temptation can affect group goals, and one that tests how teamwork can benefit the group. The researchers then created 10 experiments in which 50,000 generations of neural networks played the games. Intelligence was measured by the number of nodes added in each network as the players evolved over time. The researchers found that the networks evolved strategies similar to those seen when humans play the games with other humans. "What this indicates is that in species ancestral to humans, it could have been the transition to more cooperative societies that drove the evolution of our brains," McNally says.
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