2015/02/17 by Reshef Meir, David C. Parkes, Meir, Reshef +2
Computer Science · Decision Sciences · #Advanced Bandit Algorithms Research #Computer Science and Game Theory (cs.GT) #Evolutionary Algorithms and Applications #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Game Theory and Applications #Machine Learning (cs.LG) #cs.GT #cs.LG
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1502.05056
full version of a paper accepted to AAMAS-2015
arxiv created 2015/02/17 · openalex publication_date 2015/02/17 · arxiv updated 2015/02/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We consider a recent innovative theory by Chastain et al. on the role of sex in evolution [PNAS'14]. In short, the theory suggests that the evolutionary process of gene recombination implements the celebrated multiplicative weights updates algorithm (MWUA). They prove that the population dynamics induced by sexual reproduction can be precisely modeled by genes that use MWUA as their learning strategy in a particular coordination game. The result holds in the environments of weak selection, under the assumption that the population frequencies remain a product distribution. We revisit the theory, eliminating both the requirement of weak selection and any assumption on the distribution of the population. Removing the assumption of product distributions is crucial, since as we show, this assumption is inconsistent with the population dynamics. We show that the marginal allele distributions induced by the population dynamics precisely match the marginals induced by a multiplicative weights update algorithm in this general setting, thereby affirming and substantially generalizing these earlier results. We further revise the implications for convergence and utility or fitness guarantees in coordination games. In contrast to the claim of Chastain et al.[PNAS'14], we conclude that the sexual evolutionary dynamics does not entail any property of the population distribution, beyond those already implied by convergence.