On Thursday 15th May 2025 Prof. Ard Louis will be speaking at The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion Public Lecture entitled ‘Evolution, Algorithms, and Convergence’.
The space of biological possibilities is unimaginably vast. For example, if you tried to generate every possible DNA sequence just 125 base pairs long—a minuscule fraction of the three billion base pairs that encode the human genome—their total mass would exceed that of the observable universe. Finding the same thing twice in such hyper-astronomically large spaces seems impossible. Yet, evolutionary convergence—where distinct lineages independently develop similar phenotypes—challenges this intuition.
One key to unlocking this puzzle is to recognize that natural selection does not act directly on mutations, but rather on the phenotypes shaped by developmental programs. This naturally leads to intuition built on an algorithmic reinterpretation of the infinite monkey theorem – monkeys on universal computers rather than on typewriters — which predicts that random mutations will produce novel phenotypes that are strongly biased towards simpler, more compressible forms. Viewing evolution as a search within the space of algorithms helps explain the repeated emergence of biological forms in RNA secondary structures, the ubiquity of symmetry in protein complexes, and the recurring tendency toward simple shapes in leaves and teeth. Finally, while these principles undermine a core argument from the Intelligent Design movement, they may also point to deeper structures in biology.
Although the live event is only open to in-person attendees, a recording will be made and published here shortly afterwards.
This event is held in partnership with Christians in Science.
