We consider here the problem of the preeminence of
the Darwinian model of evolution in the face of growing and
persistent evidence that biological systems (from microbiology
to ecosystems) exhibit many behaviours that do not fit neatly
into Darwin’s explanation, and which are currently classified
as “periphery” (almost epiphenomena); it is the old problem
of the central dogma, writ large. Authors from Shapiro to
Cornwallis to Laland have provided some of the evidence
that more is going on than simple reproduction, (undirected)
variation, and selection, and have suggested that it is now time
to build an “extended evolutionary synthesis”, with Sultan
even suggesting that the extensions should be brought into
the centre of the new model. Our contribution is to build the
beginning of such a model, lean in biological detail, but rich in
evolutionary (algorithmic) mechanisms that can explain more
properly how systems evolve.
A research seminar talk I gave at Cardiff University on 5th December 2016. I rather co-opted this as a dry run for some ideas I am developing on how to teach computer science in general. Enjoy!
Ethics - or how to have good manners in your scientific careerJoshua Knowles
Ethics basically means discipline. That is more helpful a thought than to think of it as morals, anyway. What disciplines does a scientist and communicator of science need so as to stay alive, and contribute to the great scientific game? Many of the disciplines needed are the classical social ones of being generous, polite, encouraging, open, honest, modest, and so on. Some others are more specialised, like how NOT to give your best unpublished ideas away at a conference, and how NOT to accidentally copy someone else's great idea they told you in confidence.
The Experts: We have personally interviewed two well-known experts, Antoine Danchin and Markus Schmidt to gather their opinions about every aspect of Synthetic Biology. They have also filled our survey so you can compare your answers to theirs, how close are your ideas to the ones of the experts?
A research seminar talk I gave at Cardiff University on 5th December 2016. I rather co-opted this as a dry run for some ideas I am developing on how to teach computer science in general. Enjoy!
Ethics - or how to have good manners in your scientific careerJoshua Knowles
Ethics basically means discipline. That is more helpful a thought than to think of it as morals, anyway. What disciplines does a scientist and communicator of science need so as to stay alive, and contribute to the great scientific game? Many of the disciplines needed are the classical social ones of being generous, polite, encouraging, open, honest, modest, and so on. Some others are more specialised, like how NOT to give your best unpublished ideas away at a conference, and how NOT to accidentally copy someone else's great idea they told you in confidence.
The Experts: We have personally interviewed two well-known experts, Antoine Danchin and Markus Schmidt to gather their opinions about every aspect of Synthetic Biology. They have also filled our survey so you can compare your answers to theirs, how close are your ideas to the ones of the experts?
Information Theory and the Demise of DarwinismFred Williams
Evolutionists claim that life arose by random mutation and natural selection. While numerous holes in this “theory” have been exposed time and again across the scientific spectrum, perhaps the greatest unmasking has come from the fields of molecular biology and genetics. Intersecting these fields is the science of information, which by itself poses overwhelming problems for any concept that relies on randomness and chance outside of intelligence. This presentation will walk you through the different ideas of what information is, and how its presence in the biological world is an insurmountable hurdle for evolution to overcome.
On the Destiny of the Species: What Would Darwin Think 150 Years After 'The ...martine
Presentation about the morphing from genes to bemes as the next step in the quest for survivable self-replication codes, delivered at World Transhumanist Association meeting in Chicago
What comes after science?
Two types of technology: man-made technology and universe-centered technology
Two types of data: invariant data and variant data
How Life Is Lived In Different Times
FYI… This is the problem with Intelligent Design and its.docxbudbarber38650
FYI…
This is the problem with Intelligent
Design and its proponents. They
have no testable mechanism to
offer as evidence of its scientific
validity.
Introduction to Physical Anthropology
ANTHRO 101 – ONLINE
Historical Influences Blog Post
Due Wednesday of Week 1 (Comments due Thursday)
Week 1 – Historical Influences on Darwin: BACKGROUND
The life’s work of Charles Darwin’s did not seek to provide evidence that evolution occurs. Even 160 years
ago, it was generally understood that organisms change over time. Scientists, however, were reluctant to
pursue this avenue of inquiry due to the social repercussions of the time, with the church frowning on any
ideas that seemed out of line with religious and biblical doctrine. Look at what the church did to Galileo
when he dared to argue that the sun was the center of our system of planets instead of Earth! Imagine the
pressure to avoid discussing the idea that organisms, including (and especially) humans, might evolve and
change.
Evolution is a natural process, observable in the world
around us. What was in question during Darwin’s time,
and what he sought to explain, was how evolution
happens, not if. Darwin’s hypothesis (now a theory), that
populations of organisms change over time in response to
environmental stress, provided a mechanism that
explained how this process of evolution worked. More
importantly, the mechanism of natural selection provided
a testable, falsifiable explanation that possessed powerful
predictive value, meaning that it allowed scientists to
predict what they expected to see in the natural world if natural selection really was the mechanism by
which evolution worked and then check to see if those predictions were true.
How does evolution work?
Here are some key points to remember regarding the logical argument
supporting Darwin’s theory of evolution by the mechanism of natural
selection:
All organisms have the potential of reproducing exponentially. Two rabbits are roughly capable of
producing approximately 200 rabbits in their lifetime. Imagine if all 200 baby bunnies had 200
hundred more baby bunnies… and so on… and so on… That is exponential growth that has the
potential of having us up to our eyeballs in rabbits. But we aren’t up to our eyeballs in rabbits, are
we? Why not? This question is the starting point of Darwin’s work.
What is preventing organisms from reproducing at their potential? Something is keeping those
rabbits from producing all those bunnies. Baby rabbits are costly to the parent to produce. The
parent needs time, shelter, food, water and protection from predators. These needs are called
“resources”.
Resources are limited. Our planet has a limit of much it can hold and produce. There will not be
enough resources available for all organisms to reproduce as many offspring as they can.
Organisms with better access to resources wil.
In this talk, I share my views about research gaps in India with emphasis on CSE research. I present some of the difficulties what I have faced which high lights technology gaps. Also, I summarize technology predictions of BBC and other famous individuals. I do also advise the need and scope of futuristic research in CSE in India.
Epistemology, technology and knowledge growth - Meetup session 4William Hall
This is the 4th of 23 presentations in a series introducing and outlining my hypertext book project, "Application Holy Wars or a New Reformation - A Fugue on the Theory of Knowledge. The project explores the interactions of technology and cognition in the extraordinary evolutionary history of the human species. Here I get into the Subject or meat of the book, building on Karl Popper's evolutionary epistemology and Thomas Kuhn's scientific revolutions.
A talk at Webstock 2009 by Nat Torkington. "Join a master of failure on a whirlwind tour of science, computing, and business failures, and discover the secret weapon that is the strategic failure." is how I blurbed it, but the talk itself is more about learning. Watch it, you'll see.
Essay about Sci-fI Films
Science Essay
Scientific Theory Essay
Evolution of Science Essay
My Love For Science
Essay about Life Science
My Passion For Science
Environmental Science Essay
Essay on Forensic Science
What Is Earth Science? Essay
Scientific method vs. hollow earth theoryMarcus 2012
http://marcusvannini2012.blogspot.com/
http://www.marcusmoon2022.org/designcontest.htm
Shoot for the moon and if you miss you'll land among the stars...
Unit 8 - Information and Communication Technology (Paper I).pdfThiyagu K
This slides describes the basic concepts of ICT, basics of Email, Emerging Technology and Digital Initiatives in Education. This presentations aligns with the UGC Paper I syllabus.
Information Theory and the Demise of DarwinismFred Williams
Evolutionists claim that life arose by random mutation and natural selection. While numerous holes in this “theory” have been exposed time and again across the scientific spectrum, perhaps the greatest unmasking has come from the fields of molecular biology and genetics. Intersecting these fields is the science of information, which by itself poses overwhelming problems for any concept that relies on randomness and chance outside of intelligence. This presentation will walk you through the different ideas of what information is, and how its presence in the biological world is an insurmountable hurdle for evolution to overcome.
On the Destiny of the Species: What Would Darwin Think 150 Years After 'The ...martine
Presentation about the morphing from genes to bemes as the next step in the quest for survivable self-replication codes, delivered at World Transhumanist Association meeting in Chicago
What comes after science?
Two types of technology: man-made technology and universe-centered technology
Two types of data: invariant data and variant data
How Life Is Lived In Different Times
FYI… This is the problem with Intelligent Design and its.docxbudbarber38650
FYI…
This is the problem with Intelligent
Design and its proponents. They
have no testable mechanism to
offer as evidence of its scientific
validity.
Introduction to Physical Anthropology
ANTHRO 101 – ONLINE
Historical Influences Blog Post
Due Wednesday of Week 1 (Comments due Thursday)
Week 1 – Historical Influences on Darwin: BACKGROUND
The life’s work of Charles Darwin’s did not seek to provide evidence that evolution occurs. Even 160 years
ago, it was generally understood that organisms change over time. Scientists, however, were reluctant to
pursue this avenue of inquiry due to the social repercussions of the time, with the church frowning on any
ideas that seemed out of line with religious and biblical doctrine. Look at what the church did to Galileo
when he dared to argue that the sun was the center of our system of planets instead of Earth! Imagine the
pressure to avoid discussing the idea that organisms, including (and especially) humans, might evolve and
change.
Evolution is a natural process, observable in the world
around us. What was in question during Darwin’s time,
and what he sought to explain, was how evolution
happens, not if. Darwin’s hypothesis (now a theory), that
populations of organisms change over time in response to
environmental stress, provided a mechanism that
explained how this process of evolution worked. More
importantly, the mechanism of natural selection provided
a testable, falsifiable explanation that possessed powerful
predictive value, meaning that it allowed scientists to
predict what they expected to see in the natural world if natural selection really was the mechanism by
which evolution worked and then check to see if those predictions were true.
How does evolution work?
Here are some key points to remember regarding the logical argument
supporting Darwin’s theory of evolution by the mechanism of natural
selection:
All organisms have the potential of reproducing exponentially. Two rabbits are roughly capable of
producing approximately 200 rabbits in their lifetime. Imagine if all 200 baby bunnies had 200
hundred more baby bunnies… and so on… and so on… That is exponential growth that has the
potential of having us up to our eyeballs in rabbits. But we aren’t up to our eyeballs in rabbits, are
we? Why not? This question is the starting point of Darwin’s work.
What is preventing organisms from reproducing at their potential? Something is keeping those
rabbits from producing all those bunnies. Baby rabbits are costly to the parent to produce. The
parent needs time, shelter, food, water and protection from predators. These needs are called
“resources”.
Resources are limited. Our planet has a limit of much it can hold and produce. There will not be
enough resources available for all organisms to reproduce as many offspring as they can.
Organisms with better access to resources wil.
In this talk, I share my views about research gaps in India with emphasis on CSE research. I present some of the difficulties what I have faced which high lights technology gaps. Also, I summarize technology predictions of BBC and other famous individuals. I do also advise the need and scope of futuristic research in CSE in India.
Epistemology, technology and knowledge growth - Meetup session 4William Hall
This is the 4th of 23 presentations in a series introducing and outlining my hypertext book project, "Application Holy Wars or a New Reformation - A Fugue on the Theory of Knowledge. The project explores the interactions of technology and cognition in the extraordinary evolutionary history of the human species. Here I get into the Subject or meat of the book, building on Karl Popper's evolutionary epistemology and Thomas Kuhn's scientific revolutions.
A talk at Webstock 2009 by Nat Torkington. "Join a master of failure on a whirlwind tour of science, computing, and business failures, and discover the secret weapon that is the strategic failure." is how I blurbed it, but the talk itself is more about learning. Watch it, you'll see.
Essay about Sci-fI Films
Science Essay
Scientific Theory Essay
Evolution of Science Essay
My Love For Science
Essay about Life Science
My Passion For Science
Environmental Science Essay
Essay on Forensic Science
What Is Earth Science? Essay
Scientific method vs. hollow earth theoryMarcus 2012
http://marcusvannini2012.blogspot.com/
http://www.marcusmoon2022.org/designcontest.htm
Shoot for the moon and if you miss you'll land among the stars...
Unit 8 - Information and Communication Technology (Paper I).pdfThiyagu K
This slides describes the basic concepts of ICT, basics of Email, Emerging Technology and Digital Initiatives in Education. This presentations aligns with the UGC Paper I syllabus.
The French Revolution, which began in 1789, was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France. It marked the decline of absolute monarchies, the rise of secular and democratic republics, and the eventual rise of Napoleon Bonaparte. This revolutionary period is crucial in understanding the transition from feudalism to modernity in Europe.
For more information, visit-www.vavaclasses.com
Honest Reviews of Tim Han LMA Course Program.pptxtimhan337
Personal development courses are widely available today, with each one promising life-changing outcomes. Tim Han’s Life Mastery Achievers (LMA) Course has drawn a lot of interest. In addition to offering my frank assessment of Success Insider’s LMA Course, this piece examines the course’s effects via a variety of Tim Han LMA course reviews and Success Insider comments.
Francesca Gottschalk - How can education support child empowerment.pptxEduSkills OECD
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Introduction to AI for Nonprofits with Tapp NetworkTechSoup
Dive into the world of AI! Experts Jon Hill and Tareq Monaur will guide you through AI's role in enhancing nonprofit websites and basic marketing strategies, making it easy to understand and apply.
Model Attribute Check Company Auto PropertyCeline George
In Odoo, the multi-company feature allows you to manage multiple companies within a single Odoo database instance. Each company can have its own configurations while still sharing common resources such as products, customers, and suppliers.
A Strategic Approach: GenAI in EducationPeter Windle
Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies such as Generative AI, Image Generators and Large Language Models have had a dramatic impact on teaching, learning and assessment over the past 18 months. The most immediate threat AI posed was to Academic Integrity with Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) focusing their efforts on combating the use of GenAI in assessment. Guidelines were developed for staff and students, policies put in place too. Innovative educators have forged paths in the use of Generative AI for teaching, learning and assessments leading to pockets of transformation springing up across HEIs, often with little or no top-down guidance, support or direction.
This Gasta posits a strategic approach to integrating AI into HEIs to prepare staff, students and the curriculum for an evolving world and workplace. We will highlight the advantages of working with these technologies beyond the realm of teaching, learning and assessment by considering prompt engineering skills, industry impact, curriculum changes, and the need for staff upskilling. In contrast, not engaging strategically with Generative AI poses risks, including falling behind peers, missed opportunities and failing to ensure our graduates remain employable. The rapid evolution of AI technologies necessitates a proactive and strategic approach if we are to remain relevant.
Palestine last event orientationfvgnh .pptxRaedMohamed3
An EFL lesson about the current events in Palestine. It is intended to be for intermediate students who wish to increase their listening skills through a short lesson in power point.
1. Ratcheting Evolution,
According to the
Biology
(Algorithms for Evolution)
Joshua Knowles - j.knowles@bham.ac.uk, with heavy debts to
Richard A. Watson (U. Southampton)
2. Darwin
Charles Darwin is widely regarded as
the forefather of Evolution by Natural
Selection
His theory is the cornerstone of much
biology, and is at the centre of
Evolutionary Biology – the study of how
genes, organs, organisms, and on all the
way up to ecosystems evolve over time.
Let’s applaud Darwin!
3. The Evolutionary Synthesis
Modern evolutionary theory admits that while Darwin was
right on many, many things, he did not know genetics (or
genetics had not been discovered)
So, the “Modern Synthesis” of how evolution works adds
Mendelian genetics to Darwin, and adds some other
things too.
5. Extending
the Evolutionary Synthesis
More recently, new and persistent biological evidence has
been emerging, which suggests that there are many
mechanisms that genes, proteins, cells, organs, organisms
and whole ecosystems use to evolve.
The mechanisms are
• Coevolution
• Niche construction / speciation
• Phenotypic plasticity
• Gene reordering
• “Junk” DNA
• Major transitions, and symbiogenesis – Margulis
• GAIA theory (the whole world is an organism)
These are not really part of the Darwinian model ;-(
7. Extending
the Evolutionary Synthesis
YOU: OK, Josh, but what the heck has that got to do with
computer science?
ME: Well, natural selection is an algorithm. That is to say,
we can run a simulation of natural selection on our laptops
and evolve all sorts of cool stuff ...
N.B.: When we run a simulation of natural selection, this is
natural selection, according to most philosophers. It is just
the same as saying that adding 2+2 on paper is exactly the
same as taking two objects and putting them next to two others.
8. Extending
the Evolutionary Synthesis
YOU: OK, Josh, but what the heck has that got to do with
computer science?
ME: Well, natural selection is an algorithm. That is to say,
we can run a simulation of natural selection on our laptops
and evolve all sorts of cool stuff ...
ME: And what’s more, those algorithms could be improved
greatly if we added in more ways of evolving. We need to
get closer to the new biology, but without the detail.
This is easily said!
9. Evolutionary Algorithms
The products of evolutionary algorithms range over
Bridges
Military strategies
Artificially intelligent game-players, and bots on the Internet
(Physical) Swarm robots, and how they move and cooperate
Telephone and computer network designs
Roasting recipes for making chocolate!
Drug designs
...and many more things besides.
10. Evolutionary Algorithms
The products of evolutionary algorithms range over
A drug evolved from DNA!
[see my papers]
An antenna evolved for a NASA space probe
11. Evolutionary Algorithms
The products of evolutionary algorithms range over
Automated mass spectrometry,
as seen in Batman
[see my papers on this]
Roasted cocoa beans with
wonderful aroma
[see my papers]
12. Evolutionary Algorithms
The products of evolutionary algorithms range over
Work from the 1970s done by Hans-Paul Schwefel and colleagues in Berlin
13. Evolutionary algorithms:
the algorithm
Q. How does it work?
Answer:
1. Decide what you want to evolve
2. Choose an appropriate measure of quality
3. Start with some random attempts
4. Select the best few, according to your quality measure
5. Create new copies of these few, but with some small changes.
Let the others die ;-(
6. Keep going back to step 4. until you are happy!
N.B. it is crucial that step 5 allows inheritance of most of the characteristics, unchanged.
14. Extending
the Evolutionary Synthesis
YOU: OK, Josh, but what the heck has that got to do with
computer science?
ME: Well, natural selection is an algorithm. That is to say,
we can run a simulation of natural selection on our laptops
and evolve all sorts of cool stuff ...
ME: And what’s more, those algorithms could be improved
greatly if we added in more ways of evolving. We need to
get closer to the new biology, but without the detail.
This is easily said!
15. Extending
the Evolutionary Synthesis
Coevolution
Niche construction (speciation)
Lifetime learning (heritable)
Symbiogenesis! – a theory by Lynn Margulis
GAIA!!! – a theory by James Lovelock
These are just some of the ways we could add stuff !
16. Extending
the Evolutionary Synthesis
Coevolution
Niche construction (speciation)
Lifetime learning (heritable)
Symbiogenesis! – a theory by Lynn Margulis
GAIA!!! – a theory by James Lovelock
These are just some of the ways we could add stuff !
17. Heritable lifetime-learning
We adapt, during life – that is clear
How much of the adaptation is inherited? – This has long
been controversial
HOW could things learned in your brain (or heart) be
passed on to the next generation via your genes?!?
Conventional (Darwin) view: they can’t
Maverick (Shapiro) view: they can!! ... So there!
We want to create algorithms to answer the HOW, and give
a bit of a better justification than “So there!” ;-)
18. We’ve made a good start
Richard A. Watson’s work made the front cover of New Scientist, and
was in the Independent newspaper, both in 2016.
19. We’ve made a good start
Joshua Knowles’s work on evolutionary algorithms has been cited in
15,000 scientific papers in just 15 years. And his recent NIPS slides were
viewed online >400 times in less than two weeks
20. Holmes and Watson
...solved a few mysteries.
So, what about Knowles and Watson?
Or, Watson and Knowles?
Watch THIS SPACE !
21. Holmes and Watson
...solved a few mysteries.
So, what about Knowles and Watson?
Or, Watson and Knowles?
Watch THIS SPACE ! And are YOU going to help us?
22. Selected references
(very selected)
Joshua Knowles (2006) “ParEGO:...”, IEEE Transactions on
Evolutionary Computation
(cited >400 times; IEEE award-winning)
Richard A. Watson (2016) “Why evolution may be smarter
than we thought”, The Independent
Our publications full listings are online at these two places:
goo.gl/FMCXIA - Joshua Knowles
goo.gl/hIbyH9 - Richard A. Watson
Editor's Notes
I want to say something here about religion and Darwin. If we ask the question, Who or what created Man?, then one answer is God. I happen to believe in that answer, but God is not a very clear concept, and is different to different people. So we can still believe in God, but admit it would be nice to know a bit more about how Man came to be. If you ask me how a motor car works, I will tell you as well as I can. If I said God made it, you probably wouldn’t be very happy with my answer, especially if I charge you £30 an hour. It is exactly the same with Man: we can ask how he came to be, and try to explain it in as much detail as we can, but still the ultimate answer can be “God made him”.
As well as believing in God, I am also an atheist. This is not being funny or clever, but I find the Universe wonderful, and I find that science and philosophy are incomplete – the gap between the reality (or truth) of the universe, and our mechanical explanations, is God (or mystery), and I think it will always be there (eternal God). However, this kind of makes me an atheist by many standards, because I seek explanations and don’t accept “God did it” as an answer!
