Showing posts with label Charles Darwin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Charles Darwin. Show all posts
 | Evolutionary  Medicine Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution. Theodosius Dobzhansky |
"The incorrect metaphor of the body as a machine can now be replaced with an evolutionary view of the body as a bundle of tradeoffs shaped by natural selection to maximize Darwinian fitness. This change in perspective is fundamental. It will lead to advances at all levels of analysis in all fields of medicine."
Randolph Nesse: Darwinian medicine is flowering: will it set seed?
| Evolution's Relevance to Health & Medicine. Modern, also known as western medicine, is not the only medicine in the world. There are other and older systems for health and restoring balance. Some, like acupuncture, have a proven clinical track record. There are many examples, although what they believe and practice may not be completely based on science. But the scientific basis for modern medicine is not complete. Darwin and evolution are not taken into consideration. We practice medicine after the fact, healing only after the problem arises, it is not necessarily preventive. And how the symptoms and health issues started are not the focus of treatment. Treatment is the only focus and medical involvement ends there. The power to explain and predict that comes from evolutionary theory is missing. |  |
Our biology is adapted to maximize reproduction, not necessarily health.
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  | All cultures strive for the best in everything, including the medical practice. This is regardless of their approach. Although, the approaches can be very different. Sometimes this means adapting nature to our design. Sometimes this means adapting ourselves to nature. Which approach is best… for the best? I’m convinced it’s both. Exclusively, they may miss essential contributions. Mutually things may be enhanced. But they are perhaps best for different things, in times and for purposes. Medicine practiced in Part of the problem as I see it, is that this mechanical approach in medicine is too often accompanied by the treatment of symptoms as the disease. It can miss therapeutic factors, especially without any thought to the underlining ultimate rather than proximate causes. Then by remedying symptoms and/or working against the bodies’ own natural defenses, varying results are achieved. Not all of the treatments may have beneficial or even benign effects. One type of result is that the symptoms get better but eventually recur. Another is that it makes the condition worse or prolonged. This approach ignores such things as the mind-body connection. A powerful link in our health but certainly underdeveloped in the approaches taken in our culture. |
Fortunately another approach is slowly being recognized and applied in scientific medicine. One that includes factors that attempt to explain and predict. One that also takes an approach that adapts us to our nature and even to Nature itself. A preventive medicine. An approach that is Darwinian or Evolutionary Medicine. |  |
 The obvious perils of relying on technology without fully understanding the causes or consequences.  | There is a mentality that just taking a pill to mask symptoms will somehow alleviate the disease. Sometimes not only are they unnecessary but actually make things worse in the long run. The overuse of antibiotics is a well known and prime example of making things worse. It's simple bacterial evolution. Obvious. Pain, fever and a host of other symptoms have evolved in the course of protecting and healing us. If you hurt your knee, you won't be doing much good if you further damage it by use. But there are many more examples. If you have a headache, your body is telling you something is wrong. An analgesic will only cover up the problem, not take it away. It's like this... if you turn off the smoke detector, you haven't put out the fire. As simple as that. If you have a cold, some of your symptoms are in a way forcing you to slow down and use resources to fight the infection. Why would you want to turn down or turn off these defenses? There's a commercial that really pisses me off. The actor says "If you think a cold is going to stop me...etc" she takes an Advil and then she dives in a pool and goes swimming. Wow. Just stay home and lie down, drink fluids. That is what will get you better and certainly not worse. Added benefit... it will also prevent you from spreading the cold around to others. |
"Seen in the light of evolution, biology is, perhaps, intellectually the most satisfying and inspiring science. Without that light it becomes a pile of sundry facts, some of them interesting or curious,
but making no meaningful picture as a whole."
Theodosius Dobzhansky
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or Models for the Tempo & Mode of Change in the Evolution of Business
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 | Punctuated!  Economics? "We believe that punctuational change dominates the history of life..." Niles Eldredge & Stephen Jay Gould |
Evolutionary & Revolutionary Disruptions: How change usually occurs The scientific paradigm shifts discussed in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, by Thomas Kuhn, were based on correlations with shifts in worldview within the society and cultures. These disruptive changes weakened old views, opening the ground for new scientific paradigms to emerge and be accepted. It is suggested that only then can these new theories generate a sustained flurry of new research for years to come. Perhaps Nikola Tesla was right when he said “The practical success of an idea, irrespective of its inherent merit, is dependent on the attitude of the contemporaries. If timely it is quickly adopted; if not, it is apt to fare like a sprout lured out of the ground by warm sunshine, only to be injured and retarded in its growth by the succeeding frost." And perhaps Charles Darwin's sense of this contributed to his not publishing the Origin of Species until many years later. His comments on Vox populii seem to imply it as well (What Theories Need). Kuhn's paradigmatic shifts punctuate the history of scientific theories, although sometimes they also occur in small clusters. Kuhn's insights into these shifts happen can readily be applied to fields beyond the domain of science. These shifts or changes seems to reflect a similar pattern in a theory of evolution explaining how speciation takes place. No, it is not strictly Darwinian. Darwin proposed a gradual change over time, something he seems to have embraced from Charles Lyell's geological processes. Although Thomas Huxley had warned him about the difficulties with it. Darwin, as others did, struggled with the lack of fossil evidence to support gradualism. Years later what Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould proposed in a 1972 paper, were periods of stasis punctuated by rather drastic and rapid changes in species. It was an explanation for the patterns seen in the fossil record. The occurrence of speciation that is the grand parade of natural history is not strictly gradual and is aptly described by the musical term it resembles; a staccato. This theory came to be called Punctuated-Equilibria. Often called by the singular, equilibrium. Business people often like to use nature as justifying metaphors such as, it's the law of nature, dog eat dog, and it's a jungle out there. All this seems to be based on rather old fashioned ideas of nature and outdated, misunderstood science. Ok, if your going to use nature as an analogy for business then at least do it with more accurate and updated science. Don't just imagine the way things are. Learn, and see it for what it really is. | Systems With Varying Levels Of Complexity  Ros Wilson's Punctuation Pyramid  Punctuation or Disruptions can occur at each level  In reality, ecosystems are not so 2 dimensional. In fact, these systems can get very complicated.  Yet, there are ways to understand & manage them. |
 We owe our existence to punctuation or disruptions. That is what made it possible for our kind to thrive. Humans were not destined to evolve. We came about because of chance mutations allowing bipedalism. Walking upright was better adapted to the rapidly changing global environment... from more woodland to more savannah. But evidence shows, we had some luck on our side. The Lucky Ape | Punctuated Equilibria & the BP Oil Spill While this video may illustrate how speciation would occur with this theory, (that is, during disruptions to the equilibrium of the ecosystem) the morphologically different shrimp are not yet a different species if they are still successfully breeding with the eyed individuals.This case still is a good "micro" scale example. If those caustic conditions were to persist, the eyeless shrimp could become the only kind of shrimp in the area. In the new conditions, eyeless shrimp would totally replace the previous population (with eyes).Let's hope this is only temporary. While refinements (sustaining innovations) in species occur during stasis or times of relative equilibrium, the really drastic transitions (disruptive innovations) come from major punctuations. Note each period marks a drastic change in type |
Eldredge & Gould Explain Punctuated Equilibria 1991 A model for disruptive periods in economics?  A highly resolved phylogenetic Tree Of Life  Generated using iTOL: Interactive Tree Of Life using completely sequenced genomes. | Punctuated Equilibria Disruptions/Punctuation & Sustaining/Equilibria The book Punctuated-Equilibrium (2007) by Stephen Jay Gould came out 35 years after the 1972 paper and 5 years after Gould's passing. Here's a quote taken from the book jacket: "What emerges strikingly from this book is that punctuated equilibrium represents a much broader paradigm about the nature of change -- a world view that may be judged as a distinctive and important movement within recent intellectual history. Indeed we may now be living within a punctuation, and our awareness of what this means may be the enduring legacy of one of America's best-loved scientists." I see that Punctuated Equilibria in evolutionary history is robustly mirrored in the stable (sustaining innovations) and unstable (disruptive innovations) revolutions we see in economic history. If indeed we are in a disruptive phase and there seems little doubt of that on almost every level including economic, then insights may be gained and practical models designed to better manage these complex ecosystems. Ecology, the science of ecosystems, does just that. So why should we adapt to an evolutionary economics? Well, because ecosystems are what economies are.The basic premise is things interact together organically, not mechanically. The other constant is; only change is permanent. The best approach to studying ecosystems is a system thinking approach. Evolutionary economics just happens to be such a science. This kind of scientific approach to economics includes all the levels of interaction. Looking at the big picture, the web of inter-relations as an organic whole. The modeling for ecosystems provides a realistic view of the potential costs and profits. It would be better at predicting an optimum course of action. It suggests not necessarily moving toward the maximization in all cases but optimization of profits over a larger time and geographic scale. So, if it could be more accurate a predictor and also more profitable to us, why shouldn't it be used in economics? In future posts will flesh out just what I mean. |
Niles Eldredge 2012 Be warned. You have to be a bit hardcore to sit through this. But, if you want a background and personal history of the theory, This talk is a must watch. |
You might also like: What Theories Need / Funny Wonderful Life / The Median Is The Message /
A Gould-en Heart
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A Gould-en Heart
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or wonder404: A Disruptive Digital Darwinism Company
Fear leads to protection. To protect is to isolate and from isolation, no good can come.Old buddhist saying
Democracy means each citizen has a voice because each person is their own authority.
Use your best judgement. Encounter and engage yourself with good-hearted people and great minds.
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for An Enlightened, Democratic Information Age
 “The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge.” Albert Einstein | The Case for an Authoritative, Not Authoritarian, Policy in Science, Business and Life “My position concerning God is that of an agnostic. I am convinced that a vivid consciousness of the primary importance of moral principles for the betterment and ennoblement of life does not need the idea of a law-giver, especially a law-giver who works on the basis of reward and punishment.”  “I do not believe that a man should be restrained in his daily actions by being afraid of punishment after death or that he should do things only because in this way he will be rewarded after he dies. This does not make sense. The proper guidance during the life of a man should be the weight that he puts upon ethics and the amount of consideration that he has for others.” Albert Einstein |
If corporations are people, maybe so are theories on how to live. They need a voice, speak up. Great theories do not need authority, but they do need to be authoritative. They also need to be original. And perhaps a bit disruptive. | CHAPTER ONE Defining and Revising the Structure of Evolutionary Theory Theories Need Both Essences and Histories In a famous passage added to later editions of the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin (1872, p. 134) generalized his opening statement on the apparent absurdity of evolving a complex eye through a long series of gradual steps by reminding his readers that they should always treat "obvious" truths with skepticism. In so doing, Darwin also challenged the celebrated definition of science as "organized common sense," as championed by his dear friend Thomas Henry Huxley. Darwin wrote: "When it was first said that the sun stood still and world turned round, the common sense of mankind declared the doctrine false; but the old saying of Vox populi, vox Dei [the voice of the people is the voice of God], as every philosopher knows, cannot be trusted in science." Despite his firm residence within England's higher social classes, Darwin took a fully egalitarian approach towards sources of expertise, knowing full well that the most dependable data on behavior and breeding of domesticated and cultivated organisms would be obtained from active farmers and husbandmen, not from lords of their manors or authors of theoretical treatises. As Ghiselin (1969) so cogently stated, Darwin maintained an uncompromisingly "aristocratic" set of values towards judgment of his work—that is, he cared not a whit for the outpourings of vox populi, but fretted endlessly and fearfully about the opinions of a very few key people blessed with the rare mix of intelligence, zeal, and attentive practice that we call expertise (a democratic human property, respecting only the requisite mental skills and emotional toughness, and bearing no intrinsic correlation to class, profession or any other fortuity of social circumstance). The Structure of Evolutionary Theory by Stephen Jay Gould |
| Democratic thought and way of life "Democracy is an egalitarian form of government in which all the citizens of a nation together determine public policy, the laws and the actions of their state, requiring that all citizens (meeting certain qualifications) have an equal opportunity to express their opinion." (Wikipedia) I freely disclose my biases. I consider these two Evolutionary scientists, Charles Darwin and Stephen Gould (the first and third most cited names in evolutionary biology, C.G. Simpson is second), to have been the strong silent type of Leader. I also detect they had at least some of the characteristics of distruptive innovators. I recognize Gould's punctuated-equilibrium particularly in it. Disruptive and sustaining adaptations. I see evolutionary theory having a place in the economic and public sphere as well. And so, I am developing my own consulting business with evolutionary science. This, with the purpose of bringing scientific disruptive and sustaining innovations to the world of education, medicine and business for the good of all. When I was in my graduate studies, I was doing mating and reproductive experiments looking at a possible new species of Diaptomus leptopus. Yes, my first love is hominid evolution, but no one was going to give me a grant to experiment with a population of people for god knows how many generations (Haldane's dilemma notwithstanding). However, I also eventually did graduate work with Dr. Ken Jacobs in Paleo-Anthropology at another university and was on excavation teams at some of the most amazing hominid sites in Southern France, working with Dr. Serge Lebel and the legendary Dr. Henry de Lumley. Alas, more on that will have to wait for a future blog post.  Diaptomus leptopus copepod My thesis committee was to be composed of 3 professors (2 will remain nameless for discretion). The first was fortunately and naturally my supervisor and mentor Dr. Ed Maly. A wise Evolutionary Ecologist and in my eyes definitely a great scientist and human being (props to my man Ed). I chose as my second member Dr. "Smith" also a great microbiologist and human being... (had novelty at the time... a PCR machine in her lab) and who was helping me with DNA-sequencing and fingerprinting. BTW, some people think that electro-phoresis is a technique, but I have witnessed botched technique in some hands whereas in other hands, wow it's an art, baby. But I digress...)And finally, as my 3rd member, I chose Dr."Jones". Who excelled at numbers but had a completely different personality and even theoretical approach from mine (she was a Neo-Darwinist or Modern Synthesis person and very pro-Dawkins. She was tyrannically rigorous with stats. My first encounter with her was as an ungraduate, again in Ed's lab, watching a thesis presentation of one of Ed's grad students. Once the floor was open for questions she ripped into this girl's numbers, almost bringing her to tears before her profs and peers. I knew then I wanted her on my future committee. My hunch was right, (it turns out as I endured her courses over my undergrad years, and her grilling during graduate committee sessions) she would end up liking me. Apparently a drop of diplomacy and a dab of emotion intelligence go a long way. And I know she always had my best interests at heart. So here's my point. As a scientist or a business person or anyone. Trust your own mind and heart, but surround yourself with competent people who although are not always on your side in opinion, are nonetheless ultimately are on your side in common purpose, Excellence and Quality. | “If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough” AE A mind educated with open but rigorous science can make for better life decisions and so a better world. Think for yourself. A majority of one. That's where it starts.  Be daring. Inspire new adaptations. Innovate and be an example to others.  Work shouldn't only seem like play. If you're doing it right, it should be play.  “The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depend on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to life. To make this a living force and bring it to clear consciousness is perhaps the foremost task of education. The foundation of morality should not be made dependent on myth nor tied to any authority lest doubt about the myth or about the legitimacy of the authority imperil the foundation of sound judgment and action.” Albert Einstein, letter to a minister November 20, 1950; from Albert Einstein the Human Side, Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffman, eds., Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1981, p. 95. |
 In my personal and professional adventures, I have had the good fortune of meeting many truely great people. Some famous, some not so famous. Here's one of my favorite scientists and human beings. A definite scientific and real life hero to me.  was a man I had the honor to briefly know. I am proud to say I have talked with him, shaken his hand. He gave me more than the ambition to great science, he flattered me greatly once by calling me a colleague.(I may not be worthy, but he made me feel like it.) He is a man I will remember not only for his brilliant mind but his generous heart. I am humbled and grateful that he shared his Wonderful Life with me, even for a short time in life's long history. With Stephen Jay Gould... Every moment was great.  (Yes, there will be a special post on Dr. Gould's birthday, in September or if I can't wait, in May as a memorial. I might even recount the funny but touching story of how we met. He is missed. ) | There are no real authorities As a scientist, politician, business person or layman... Surround yourself with quality people, this includes the articles, books and media by the people who created them. Keep those that are the best, close. However, beware of the vox populi, for as the Buddha said, in the end you should only trust your own best judgement. Step back from the crowd and into the crowd to find out what that is.in Science, Business, or Life better than your own good judgement. But, don't turn away so easily from opposing views. If your idea has mettle (courage and fortitude) and metal (formative stuff) it will stand the tempering. You will be up to it if you have the passion of your conviction. Science is a self-correcting process on many levels. (It can apply to business and to personal growth as well). Once really good ideas are hatched what they need is exposure to fresh air and other people. Exposure first perhaps to a close circle of expertise, the best people from a variety of perspectives. And eventually to an open science at all levels of society and an awareness in the public that it's there. Open, accessible information that is for all walks of life, those who wish to live by the wisdom of the best science available. From the CEOs, MBAs, MDs and PhDs to the BMWs (that's Bus, Metro, Walk... Metro is the name for the subway here) I believe that this may allow for better policy, synergy, collaboration, idea eggs for further research, critiques, improvements, tweaks, revisions, evolutions and revolutions for the good of all. In the development of design, the input of expertise is invaluable. Wherever it comes from, it must be credible and sincere.The building of great ideas is the building of quality relationships. This ultimately comes down to relationships with quality people. True in Science. True in Business. True in Life. Equilibrium evolution produces sustaining innovations. Punctuated evolution... disruptive innovations. I am basing my MU consulting on some of these evolutionary principles. It should be interesting. I think the incorporation of evolutionary science into corporate motives, decisions and actions can be of powerful benefit. It will be central to my MU consulting services for education, medicine and business. Your support and encouragement are welcome. So are your expert and professional critiques . This is the MU Website - petershimon.com you can follow at mu_peter for Twitter updates Enjoy.© 2012 MU - Peter Shimon |
 | Agnostic Science  ‘I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time.’ Mark Twain |
It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.
Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories instead of theories to suit facts.
Arthur Conan Doyle
Science is Agnostic I am a scientist. What I use to discern things is the scientific method for arriving at facts and testable theories that make sense of these facts. As a guide, The Carl Sagan Baloney Toolkit is very handy in this regard.I'm also a zen buddhist. It's not a religion. There is no god to be worshiped. Nor is there a doctrine or scripture. Zen is a way of life. As to the argument of if there is a god, that is between Theists and Atheists, I am part of neither camp. I neither believe nor disbelieve in the proposition. I'm an Agnostic on this question. |  "The scientist is not a person who gives the right answers, he is one who asks the right questions." Claude Lévi-Strauss |
It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble.
It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.
Mark Twain
It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.
Mark Twain
 | "Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing Thomas Jeffersonthan he who believes what is wrong." |
Do not condemn the judgment of another because it differs from your own.
You may both be wrong.
Dandemis
A Damn Good Argument Here's why I'm an agnostic. And it is because of the rigor of science that I have come to this conclusion. I won't make many arguments, only one question. Sagan's Toolkit provides one that should be asked.But You may still both be wrong. - "Ask whether the hypothesis can, at least in principle, be falsified (shown to be false by some unambiguous test). In other words, it is testable? Can others duplicate the experiment and get the same result?" So now, the hypothesis on the existence of god. A great deal of logic and philosophy and blind faith have gone into these debates from both sides. Both are based on belief. Yes, belief. Belief in the meaning of "confidence in the truth or existence of something not immediately susceptible to rigorous proof". Theists have yet to demonstrate any empirical evidence. But then neither have the Atheists any conclusive proof of the contrary. And while religion is definitely not value-free, many forget that atheists too, are not value-free. Strictly speaking, there is no data one way or the other. Based on science, that demands facts, the conclusion I come to is agnostism. I border between being a strong or a weak one. I'm open to any empirical proof but haven't seen any yet. Skeptical, I don't think there is one. "To kill an error is as good a service as, and sometimes even better than, the establishing of a new truth or fact." Charles Darwin | "The question [Do you believe in God?] has a peculiar structure. If I say no, do I mean I'm convinced God doesn't exist, or do I mean I'm not convinced he does exist? Those are two very different questions." Dr. Arroway in Carl Sagan's Contact  Historically, throughout many ages and cultures, alchemy was a union of protoscience and spirituality. Alchemy sought the purification and transmutation of both matter and spirit. Noble intent maybe, but it's not objective science.  "Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep thoughts can be winnowed from deep nonsense." Carl Sagan |
We should be teaching our children the scientific method and the reasons for a Bill of Rights.
With it comes a certain decency, humility and community spirit.
Carl Sagan
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 | "The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must be content to remain an agnostic." Charles Darwin |
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With Manifold Force
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 | The Struggle for Life  It is the doctrine of Malthus applied with manifold force to the whole animal and vegetable kingdoms. Charles Darwin |
| The Struggle for Life The full title of Darwin's book was "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life." "I should premise that I use the term Struggle for Existence in a large and metaphorical sense, including dependence of one being on another, and including (which is more important) not only the life of the individual, but success in leaving progeny." Charles Darwin |  |
 | "But the mere existence of individual variability and of some few well-marked varieties, though necessary as the foundation for the work, helps us but little in understanding how species arise in nature. How have all those exquisite adaptations of one part of the organisation to another part, and to the conditions of life, and of one distinct organic being to another being, been perfected? We see these beautiful co-adaptations most plainly in the woodpecker and missletoe; and only a little less plainly in the humblest parasite which clings to the hairs of a quadruped or feathers of a bird; in the structure of the beetle which dives through the water; in the plumed seed which is wafted by the gentlest breeze; in short, we see beautiful adaptations everywhere and in every part of the organic world." |
| "Again, it may be asked, how is it that varieties, which I have called incipient species, become ultimately converted into good and distinct species, which in most cases obviously differ from each other far more than do the varieties of the same species? How do those groups of species, which constitute what are called distinct genera, and which differ from each other more than do the species of the same genus, arise? All these results, as we shall more fully see in the next chapter, follow inevitably from the struggle for life. Owing to this struggle for life, any variation, however slight and from whatever cause proceeding, if it be in any degree profitable to an individual of any species, in its infinitely complex relations to other organic beings and to external nature, will tend to the preservation of that individual, and will generally be inherited by its offspring ... I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection, in order to mark its relation to man's power of selection." |  "But Natural Selection, as we shall hereafter see, is a power incessantly ready for action, and is as immeasurably superior to man's feeble efforts, as the works of Nature are to those of Art." Charles Darwin |
Darwin's Struggle: The Evolution Of The Origin Of Species (BBC) | "There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved." Charles Darwin |
| A monk once asked Zen master Mu-chou Lu, "We dress and eat every day, and how do we escape from having to put on clothes and eat food?" Mu-chou replied, "We dress; we eat." The monk said, "I don't understand." Mu-chou answered, "If you don't understand, put on your clothes, and eat your food." (Ku-tsun-hsu Yu-lu) |  |
Dan Ariely: What makes us feel good about our work? |
“Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment, full effort is full victory.”
Mahatma Gandhi
Love Life Enough To Struggle
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