Re: News: Is there anybody out there?

in article fv51cm$u9e$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, feedbackdroid at
feedbackdroid@xxxxxxxxx wrote on 4/28/08 10:26 AM:

[SNIP]

Tim Tyler, who inhabited this forum a
couple of years ago, is now over on comp.ai.philosophy pushing,
amongst other things, the "inevitiability of human life" and
intelligence, and using Simon Conway Morris as his "authority" ... to
wit: "Anyhow, Conway-Morris is the cannonical antidote to those who
think chance rules in evolution: ", etc...

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.ai.philosophy/browse_frm/thread/c70c6f2a9d
f28bbf
[starting about msg #32]

He's also pushing the idea that evolution is deterministic, based
upon ...
============
New Findings Confirm Darwin's Theory: Evolution Not Random

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080118134531.htm

Evolution Is Deterministic, Not Random, Biologists Conclude From
Multi-species Study

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071119123929.htm
=============

What's the opinion of this stuff, including Conway Morris, in the
science/evolution community? Sounds pretty much left field.

I find Tim to be a smart and level-headed fellow. I wouldn't easily dismiss
him as being in "left field". Some if Morris' work strikes me as on the
bleeding edge of scientific thinking, which is where you often find a mix of
bad and brilliant ideas. It will take some time for the scientific
community to sort them out. Regarding the recent article in science daily,
I personally think the authors (and Tim) made a mistake by describing their
findings as "deterministic". I think there is a very important observation
in their work that we can appreciate better without the baggage of
implications the word "deterministic" brings with it. This study does
illustrate, in my opinion, important physical constraints on developmental
and evolutionary outcomes that have been discussed for many years by
complexity theorists. Brian Goodwin, for example, has been emphasizing this
point for many years.

Guy


.

Relevant Pages

  • Book review: Lifes Solution (Simon Conway Morris)
    ... brain and mind, cosmology, cycling, death and dying, evolution, fiction, ... views Conway Morris disagrees profoundly. ... anything resembling humans would emerge. ... life will appear and will almost certainly be quite similar to humans. ...
    (sci.bio.evolution)
  • Re: Article: On the Great Chain of Being
    ... > "Convergent evolution also inspired the Cambridge geologist ... > Simon Conway Morris, ... > Inevitable Humans in a Lonely Universe" presents exactly the ... evolution at any point is a function of environmental conditions. ...
    (sci.bio.evolution)
  • Re: Article: On the Great Chain of Being
    ... >> Peter Medewar isn't around to write a review of the Conway Morris ... and evolution will repeatedly find those optima. ... Although the molecules that are employed to build DNA are relatively ... nothing but molecular biology. ...
    (sci.bio.evolution)
  • Re: News: Is there anybody out there?
    ... Evolution Not Random ... I was referring to Conway Morris and the papers cited here. ... bleeding edge of scientific thinking, which is where you often find a mix of ... shaded meanings of determinism. ...
    (sci.bio.evolution)
  • Re: Article: On the Great Chain of Being
    ... "Convergent evolution also inspired the Cambridge geologist ... Simon Conway Morris, ... Richard Dawkins in "The Ancestor's Tale" p. 492 ... Here's what Medewar said about Teilhard de Chardin. ...
    (sci.bio.evolution)