Ricard Solé (Universitat Pompeu Fabra; SFI External Professor)
Abstract. Technological evolution has been compared to biological evolution by many authors over the last two centuries. As a parallel experiment of innovation involving economic, historical and social components, artifacts define a universe of evolving properties that displays episodes of diversification and extinction. Here we critically review previous work comparing the two types of evolution. Like biological evolution, technological evolution is driven by descent with variation and selection, and includes patterns of convergence and contingency. Many traits of biological evolution, such as tinkering, are more relevant in engineering than expected. At the same time there are essential differences that make the two types of evolution quite distinct. The accelerated change of current information technologies, closer to genomes than to designed artifacts and increasingly inspired in nature, provide a unique opportunity to study technological evolution at all scales with unprecedented resolution.