[FRIAM] Canalization and generative entrenchment

[Jochen Fromm]

Perhaps the concept of "canalization" is associated with
"generative entrenchment", whatever this nebulous idea may mean ? 
You still have not explained the problem in simple words.
Canalization refers to certain properties of the genotype-phenotype
mapping. Of course this is a complex subject.

Even molecular biologists don't know exactly how the phenotype
arises from the genotype in detail, and I am not an expert in
molecular biology. Do we have an expert here ? According to 
the things I have read genetic canalization is defined as the 
suppression of phenotypic variation and describes insensitivity 
of a character to mutations.

see "Progress on canalization"
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/99/16/10229

Since Carlos mentioned RBNs (Random Boolean Networks), the
following paper about canalization and self-organization
may be interesting in this context:

"Evolution of Developmental Canalization in Networks of Competing Boolean
Nodes"
Kevin E. Bassler, Choongseop Lee, and Yong Lee
Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 038101 (2004) 
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.93.038101

-J.