  Smolin (1992) proposed that the fine-tuning problem for parameters of the
Standard Model might be accounted for by a Darwinian process of universe
reproduction - Cosmological Natural Selection (CNS) - in which black holes give
rise to offspring universes with slightly altered parameters. The laws for
variation and inheritance of the parameters are also subject to CNS if
variation in transmission laws occurs. This is the strategy introduced by Nei
(1967) to understand genetic transmission, through the evolutionary theory of
modifier genes, whose methodology is adopted here. When mechanisms of variation
themselves vary, they are subject to Feldman's (1972) evolutionary Reduction
Principle that selection favors greater faithfulness of replication. A theorem
of Karlin (1982) allows one to generalize this principle beyond biological
genetics to the unknown inheritance laws that would operate in CNS. The
reduction principle for CNS is illustrated with a general multitype branching
process model of universe creation containing competing inheritance laws. The
most faithful inheritance law dominates the ensemble of universes. The
Reduction Principle thus provides a mechanism to account for high fidelity of
inheritance between universes. Moreover, it reveals that natural selection in
the presence of variation in inheritance mechanisms has two distinct objects:
maximization of both fitness and faithful inheritance. Tradeoffs between
fitness and faithfulness open the possibility that evolved fundamental
parameters are compromises, and not local optima to maximize universe
production, in which case their local non-optimality may point to their
involvement in the universe inheritance mechanisms.
