Time ordering in the evolution of information processing and modulation systems

The ideas of optimization of learning algorithms in Artificial Neural Networks are reviewed emphasizing generic properties and the online implementations are interpreted from a biological perspective. A simple model of the relevant subsidiary variables needed to improve learning in artificial feedforward networks and the `time ordering' of the appearance of the respective information processing systems is proposed. We discuss the possibility that these results might be relevant in other contexts, not being restricted to the simple models from which they stem. The analysis of a few examples, which range from the lowest cellular scale to the macroscopic level, suggests that similar ideas could be applied to biological systems.