Organisms Write Their Own Evolution: Direct Epigenomic Inheritance Accelerates Learning on Compositional Tasks
The Phenopoiesis Algorithm tests if organisms can write learned knowledge directly into their heritable epigenome to accelerate evolution. By comparing this mechanism against gene-only and Baldwin Effect models across complex learning tasks, the study found that inheriting learned patterns provides 3.8 times faster adaptation on compositional problems, demonstrating a concrete computational pathway for organismal agency.