摘要翻译：
自上而下的因果关系被认为发生在生物组织的所有尺度上，作为解释生命系统结构和因果关系的层次结构的一种机制。在这里，我们提出，从自下而上到自上而下的因果关系的转变--由组织中较低层次到较高层次的信息流动的逆转，到组织中较高层次到较低层次的信息流动的逆转--是大多数主要进化转变的驱动力。因此，我们认为许多重大的进化转变可能是以因果结构的转变为标志的。我们使用逻辑增长作为一个玩具模型来演示这种转变如何能够驱动复制系统中集体行为的出现。然后，我们概述了这种情况在那些主要的进化转变中是如何发生的，在这些转变中出现了新的、更高级别的组织，并提出了检验我们的假设的可能方法。
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英文标题：
《Evolutionary Transitions and Top-Down Causation》
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作者：
Sara Imari Walker, Luis Cisneros and Paul C. W. Davies
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最新提交年份：
2012
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分类信息：

一级分类：Physics        物理学
二级分类：Adaptation and Self-Organizing Systems        自适应和自组织系统
分类描述：Adaptation, self-organizing systems, statistical physics, fluctuating systems, stochastic processes, interacting particle systems, machine learning
自适应，自组织系统，统计物理，波动系统，随机过程，相互作用粒子系统，机器学习
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一级分类：Quantitative Biology        数量生物学
二级分类：Other Quantitative Biology        其他定量生物学
分类描述：Work in quantitative biology that does not fit into the other q-bio classifications
不适合其他q-bio分类的定量生物学工作
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英文摘要：
  Top-down causation has been suggested to occur at all scales of biological organization as a mechanism for explaining the hierarchy of structure and causation in living systems. Here we propose that a transition from bottom-up to top-down causation -- mediated by a reversal in the flow of information from lower to higher levels of organization, to that from higher to lower levels of organization -- is a driving force for most major evolutionary transitions. We suggest that many major evolutionary transitions might therefore be marked by a transition in causal structure. We use logistic growth as a toy model for demonstrating how such a transition can drive the emergence of collective behavior in replicative systems. We then outline how this scenario may have played out in those major evolutionary transitions in which new, higher levels of organization emerged, and propose possible methods via which our hypothesis might be tested.
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PDF链接：
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1207.4808