Posts tagged as:

evolution

Evolution: The concept and how we talk about it

January 3, 2010

Note: I’m in the middle of writing a series on the history and prospects of advanced nanotechnology, prompted by the recent 50th anniversary of Feynman’s historic talk, “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom”. The next will discuss what the U.S. National Research Council has said about advanced molecular manufacturing, including its recommendations.

I’ve been asked [...]

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For Darwin’s sake, reject “Darwin-ism”
 (and other pernicious terms)

December 31, 2009

On this last day of the bicentennial of Darwin’s birth, I’d like to suggest that we honor Darwin by rejecting the dubious term “Darwinism”.
To call something an “ism” suggests that it is a matter ideology or faith, like Trotskyism or creationism. In the evolution wars, the term “evolutionism” is used to insinuate that the modern [...]

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Evolutionary Capacity:
Why organisms cannot be like machines

August 2, 2009

I‘ve just posted a paper on evolution and the organization of complex systems at E-drexler.com. The paper discusses things like factories, paint, and conjoined twins to illustrate four crucial differences between machine-like and life-like systems.
As an update, I added a preface that outlines the thesis of the paper and explains why the title (“Biological and [...]

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Homo floresiensis, Crows,
and the Baldwin Effect

May 30, 2009

Some scientists have expressed surprise that Homo floresiensis made and used stone tools despite having remarkably small brain. I can see two reasons why this should be no cause for astonishment: One is the intelligence of crows, the other is the Baldwin Effect.
Crows
An adult H. sapiens brain typically weights well over a kilogram. H. floresiensis [...]

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For Darwin Day: On the Origin of Genetic Information

February 12, 2009

The ideas that evolved from Darwin’s thought have shaped my thinking for more than 35 years, and a decade later, writing Engines of Creation, I relied on the generality of evolutionary principles as an anchor point for surveying the future of technology. Today, in my home, “Uncle Charles says…” means “Evolutionary principles say…”

In joining the [...]

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