Sex and Evolution

Klaus Jaffe ()
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Klaus Jaffe: Simón Bolívar University, Latin American Academy of Science (ACAL)

Chapter Chapter 7 in Infodynamics, Economics, Energy, and Life, 2026, pp 91-101 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract An example of how to manage successfully very complex information is provided by life. Over a billion years ago, natural selection invented sexual reproduction (two individuals interchange genetic information to produce a new individual) and diploidy (genetic information is stored in two copies of DNA, one from the father, the other from the mother). This is now the most popular, widespread, and efficient mechanism, decanted in eons of biological evolution, to manage information needs and constraints in living organisms. Thus diploid and bisexuals must have advantages in maintaining and increasing genetic information that other mechanisms lack. Keep in mind that haploids can also reproduce sexually with other haploids or diploids and that sexual interchange between strands of diploid genes can occur in the same organism. These modes of reproduction, though, are not very common. Extensive empirical evidence and computer simulations show that random mutations, bisexual reproduction (two sexes), diploidy (two copies of DNA), assortative mating (looking for prospective partners similar to oneself), and Natural Selection (survival of the fittest) are the optimal combination of features that possess the best balance between innovation and conservation of genetic information to promote life with continuous improvement of useful information.

Keywords: Sex; Evolution; Lessons for Infodynamics; Lessons from natural selection; Infodynamics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-88842-7_7

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