Title: 		Mimicry as Mechanism for the Evolution of Individual-based and Group-based Skills

Author: 	Rainer von Königslöw, Ph.D.

Affiliation: 	Task Re-engineering Inc.

Discipline: 	Computer Science

Abstract:	The research program investigates four hypotheses about the evolution of language:

1. that communication (including language) is an individual-based skill that helps the coordination of group-based skills such as hunting in packs, or herd-based defense against predators

2. that skills, at both the individual and group level, can be investigated through their information processing requirements

3. that skills evolve at both the individual and at the group level

4. that evolution can be investigated via the information representation in DNA, information processing in the brain, and information transmission from generation to generation.

The relationship between individual-based, group-based, and territory-based evolution is explored in a number of simulation models. This presentation includes initial results of research into the project-specific hypotheses that:

i) there are innate skills for mimicry of action based on integrated perception, such as imprinting

ii) there are innate skills for learning skills from mimicked behaviour patterns 

iii) there are group-based apprenticeship skills such as matching older leaders with younger followers

iv) there are group-based skills such as hunting in packs that improve over time and generations, and where the improvements are not based on DNA mutations but on skill enhancements that are passed on through mimicry 

The research supports the evolution of language long after the species had mostly stabilized at the genetic level. It also supports the concept of a universal grammar with regionally diverse phonetics and semantics.