Another excellent essay, well written and inspiring. One phrase caught my interest: "to understand the mathematics of evolution". I know you have a very strong background in mathematics, and would love to hear more about the mathematics of evolution as you see them.
My background is in complex adaptive systems, and I can't see how the mathematics of evolution can build a complex adaptive system. To me, the Mathematical Challenge to the Neo-Darwinian Interpretation of Evolution has never been met.
I'll see about writing that up. The modern synthesis, the Wright-Fisher process, and Lewontin's axioms of evolution are a good starting point, and then a deep-dive into evolutionary game theory. Strogatz had a paper on 'the dynamics of correlated novelties' that also started to advance our understanding of the mathematics of novelties (strictly speaking, the process of creating novelties is different from the process of evolution - evolution in the modern synthesis merely the changes in frequencies of things in a population, hence the Wright Fisher Process is a natural mathematical starting point to think about drift & selection... Lewontin blows one's minds by generalizing the axioms of life further, helping us see life-likeness in other complex adaptive systems)
I'd very much like to see a writeup like that if you get a chance. I'm familiar with the people you mentioned, but my knowledge of the subject is shallow rather than deep like yours. Don't worry, though, if you don't get around to it. Your other work here will always keep me satisfied.
This is beautiful! I became a clinician (a chiropractor), but I always retained an almost mystical infatuation with the stories and poetry of life itself, its mechanisms and its outrageously beautiful transformations. You expressed it perfectly!
I love your love for and deep understanding of biology, your courage in the face of corruption, your infinite interest in a wide range of subjects. Oh yeah, and you're funny, too ("different orientations of their mouths and anuses (I shit you not), and more.") Thanks for another good read.
My expertise, besides being 78 yrs old and still very healthy, is Family Systems Theory aka Dr Murray Bowen of Georgetown. Living systems, family systems, the pathways of emotional triangles, and multi-generational transmission processes, all serve to keep my eyes and mind open. Ain’t LIFE grand? There is never enough time to read and explore...
*Life* ... -what a long, strange trip its been...-
I find that reading "old" science is often therapeutic. Nothing like having that sense of wonder that can only be triggered by looking at things with fresh set of eyes.
Your post is truly reminiscent of this quote by *some old guy from back in the day*...
“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.”
Another excellent essay, well written and inspiring. One phrase caught my interest: "to understand the mathematics of evolution". I know you have a very strong background in mathematics, and would love to hear more about the mathematics of evolution as you see them.
My background is in complex adaptive systems, and I can't see how the mathematics of evolution can build a complex adaptive system. To me, the Mathematical Challenge to the Neo-Darwinian Interpretation of Evolution has never been met.
I'll see about writing that up. The modern synthesis, the Wright-Fisher process, and Lewontin's axioms of evolution are a good starting point, and then a deep-dive into evolutionary game theory. Strogatz had a paper on 'the dynamics of correlated novelties' that also started to advance our understanding of the mathematics of novelties (strictly speaking, the process of creating novelties is different from the process of evolution - evolution in the modern synthesis merely the changes in frequencies of things in a population, hence the Wright Fisher Process is a natural mathematical starting point to think about drift & selection... Lewontin blows one's minds by generalizing the axioms of life further, helping us see life-likeness in other complex adaptive systems)
I'd very much like to see a writeup like that if you get a chance. I'm familiar with the people you mentioned, but my knowledge of the subject is shallow rather than deep like yours. Don't worry, though, if you don't get around to it. Your other work here will always keep me satisfied.
This is beautiful! I became a clinician (a chiropractor), but I always retained an almost mystical infatuation with the stories and poetry of life itself, its mechanisms and its outrageously beautiful transformations. You expressed it perfectly!
I love your love for and deep understanding of biology, your courage in the face of corruption, your infinite interest in a wide range of subjects. Oh yeah, and you're funny, too ("different orientations of their mouths and anuses (I shit you not), and more.") Thanks for another good read.
ODE TO BIOLOGY is fabulous...thank you for this!
My expertise, besides being 78 yrs old and still very healthy, is Family Systems Theory aka Dr Murray Bowen of Georgetown. Living systems, family systems, the pathways of emotional triangles, and multi-generational transmission processes, all serve to keep my eyes and mind open. Ain’t LIFE grand? There is never enough time to read and explore...
Beautiful. Thank you for this. ❤️🙏🏽
*Life* ... -what a long, strange trip its been...-
I find that reading "old" science is often therapeutic. Nothing like having that sense of wonder that can only be triggered by looking at things with fresh set of eyes.
Your post is truly reminiscent of this quote by *some old guy from back in the day*...
“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.”