Coevolution

Author : Edward Ashford Lee
Publisher : MIT Press
Page : 385 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2020-04-21
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9780262043939

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The Coevolution by Edward Ashford Lee Pdf

Should digital technology be viewed as a new life form, sharing our ecosystem and coevolving with us? Are humans defining technology, or is technology defining humans? In this book, Edward Ashford Lee considers the case that we are less in control of the trajectory of technology than we think. It shapes us as much as we shape it, and it may be more defensible to think of technology as the result of a Darwinian coevolution than the result of top-down intelligent design. Richard Dawkins famously said that a chicken is an egg's way of making another egg. Is a human a computer's way of making another computer? To understand this question requires a deep dive into how evolution works, how humans are different from computers, and how the way technology develops resembles the emergence of a new life form on our planet. Lee presents the case for considering digital beings to be living, then offers counterarguments. What we humans do with our minds is more than computation, and what digital systems do—be teleported at the speed of light, backed up, and restored—may never be possible for humans. To believe that we are simply computations, he argues, is a “dataist” faith and scientifically indefensible. Digital beings depend on humans—and humans depend on digital beings. More likely than a planetary wipe-out of humanity is an ongoing, symbiotic coevolution of culture and technology.

Author : William H. Durham
Publisher : Stanford University Press
Page : 658 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 1991
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 0804721564

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Coevolution by William H. Durham Pdf

Charles Darwin's "On the Origins of Species" had two principal goals: to show that species had not been separately created and to show that natural selection had been the main force behind their proliferation and descent from common ancestors. In "Coevolution," the author proposes a powerful new theory of cultural evolution--that is, of the descent with modification of the shared conceptual systems we call "cultures"--that is parallel in many ways to Darwin's theory of organic evolution. The author suggests that a process of cultural selection, or preservation by preference, driven chiefly by choice or imposition depending on the circumstances, has been the main but not exclusive force of cultural change. He shows that this process gives rise to five major patterns or "modes" in which cultural change is at odds with genetic change. Each of the five modes is discussed in some detail and its existence confirmed through one or more case studies chosen for their heuristic value, the robustness of their data, and their broader implications. But "Coevolution" predicts not simply the existence of the five modes of gene-culture relations; it also predicts their relative importance in the ongoing dynamics of cultural change in particular cases. The case studies themselves are lucid and innovative reexaminations of an array of oft-pondered anthropological topics--plural marriage, sickle-cell anemia, basic color terms, adult lactose absorption, incest taboos, headhunting, and cannibalism. In a general case, the author's goal is to demonstrate that an evolutionary analysis of both genes and culture has much to contribute to our understanding of human diversity, particularly behavioral diversity, and thus to the resolution of age-old questions about nature and nurture, genes and culture.

Author : John N. Thompson
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 456 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2005-06-15
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780226797625

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The Geographic Mosaic of Coevolution by John N. Thompson Pdf

Coevolution—reciprocal evolutionary change in interacting species driven by natural selection—is one of the most important ecological and genetic processes organizing the earth's biodiversity: most plants and animals require coevolved interactions with other species to survive and reproduce. The Geographic Mosaic of Coevolution analyzes how the biology of species provides the raw material for long-term coevolution, evaluates how local coadaptation forms the basic module of coevolutionary change, and explores how the coevolutionary process reshapes locally coevolving interactions across the earth's constantly changing landscapes. Picking up where his influential The Coevolutionary Process left off, John N. Thompsonsynthesizes the state of a rapidly developing science that integrates approaches from evolutionary ecology, population genetics, phylogeography, systematics, evolutionary biochemistry and physiology, and molecular biology. Using models, data, and hypotheses to develop a complete conceptual framework, Thompson also draws on examples from a wide range of taxa and environments, illustrating the expanding breadth and depth of research in coevolutionary biology.

Author : Alec Newald
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 1998-10
Category : Alien abduction
ISBN : 0932813658

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Coevolution by Alec Newald Pdf

Alec Newald was surpised to learn that a three-hour drive to Auckland, New Zealand, had taken him ten days to complete. When his memories returned he realized that he had been whisked from the road and taken to an extraterrestrial civilization. This book recounts his tale.

Author : John N. Thompson
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 190 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2014-02-14
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780226127323

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Interaction and Coevolution by John N. Thompson Pdf

“It is not only the species that change evolutionarily through interactions . . . the interactions themselves also change.” Thus states John N. Thompson in the foreword to Interaction and Coevolution, the first title in his series of books exploring the relentless nature of evolution and the processes that shape the web of life. Originally published in 1982 more as an idea piece—an early attempt to synthesize then academically distinct but logically linked strands of ecological thought and to suggest avenues for further research—than as a data-driven monograph, Interaction and Coevolution would go on to be considered a landmark study that pointed to the beginning of a new discipline. Through chapters on antagonism, mutualism, and the effects of these interactions on populations, speciation, and community structure, Thompson seeks to explain not only how interactions differ in the selection pressures they exert on species, but also when interactions are most likely to lead to coevolution. In this era of climate change and swiftly transforming environments, the ideas Thompson puts forward in Interaction and Coevolution are more relevant than ever before.

Author : Dale H. Clayton,Sarah E. Bush,Kevin P. Johnson
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 325 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 2016
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780226302270

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Coevolution of Life on Hosts by Dale H. Clayton,Sarah E. Bush,Kevin P. Johnson Pdf

For many of us, the mere mention of lice forces an immediate hand to the head, and recollection of childhood experience with nits, special shampoos, etc. But for a certain breed of biologist, lice make for fascinating scientific fodder, especially so if you are a scientist studying coevolution. Lice and their various hosts--humans, birds, etc. --provide a stunning example of the ecology of species coevolution. This system of complex symbiotic relations reveals some of the ecological principles of coevolutionary relations, one of the most exciting areas of research in evolutionary biology of recent. This work provides an introduction to coevolutionary concepts and approaches, ranging from microevolutionary (ecological) time to macroevolutionary time. The authors then use the system of parasitic lice and their hosts to illustrate some of these different concepts and approaches. They draw examples from a variety of other coevolving systems for comparative purposes, and emphasize the integration of cophylogenetic, comparative, and experimental data in testing coevolutionary hypotheses. Because lice are permanent parasites that spend their entire lifecycle on the body of the host, their close ecological association makes them ideally suited for this kind of synthetic overview of coevolution."

Author : A.J. Boucot
Publisher : Elsevier
Page : 750 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2013-10-22
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781483290812

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Evolutionary Paleobiology of Behavior and Coevolution by A.J. Boucot Pdf

This book is the culmination of many years of research by a scientist renowned for his work in this field. It contains a compilation of the data dealing with the known stratigraphic ranges of varied behaviors, chiefly animal with a few plant and fungal, and coevolved relations. A significant part of the data consists of ``frozen behavior'', i.e. those in which an organism has been preserved while actually ``doing'' something, as contrasted with the interpretations of behavior of an organism deduced from functional morphology, important as the latter may be. The conclusions drawn from this compilation suggest that both behaviors and coevolved relations appear infrequently, following which there is relative fixity of the relation, i.e., two rates of evolution, very rapid and essentially zero. This conclusion complies well with the author's prior conclusion that community evolution followed the same rate pattern. In fact, communities are regarded here, as in large part, expressions of both behavior and coevolved relations, rather than as random aggregates controlled almost wholly by varied, unrelated physical parameters tracked by organisms, i.e., the concept that communities have no biologic reality, being merely statistical abstractions. The book is illustrated throughout with more than 400 photographs and drawings. It will be of interest to ethologists, evolutionists, parasitologists, paleontologists, and palaeobiologists at research and post-graduate levels.

Author : Douglas J. Futuyma,Montgomery Slatkin
Publisher : Sinauer Associates, Incorporated
Page : 586 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 1983
Category : Science
ISBN : UCSD:31822000477471

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Coevolution by Douglas J. Futuyma,Montgomery Slatkin Pdf

Author : John Gowdy
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 253 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2013-04-18
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9789401582506

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Coevolutionary Economics: The Economy, Society and the Environment by John Gowdy Pdf

The subject of this volume is the human economy and its coevolutionary relationship with the natural world. This relationship is examined in three broad types of societies; hunter--gatherers, agriculturalists, and modern market economies. A growing body of scientific evidence has made it clear that the current human impact on the environment is far above the level that can be maintained without causing profound changes in the biophysical world to which we belong. The new fields of ecological economics and evolutionary economics can help us understand the relationship between the economy, society and the environment and may help us to formulate effective policies to manage these changes.

Author : Scott Nuismer
Publisher : WH Freeman
Page : 320 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 2017-01-09
Category : Science
ISBN : 1319106196

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Introduction to Coevolutionary Theory by Scott Nuismer Pdf

Nusimer is able to develop the mathematical models and key theoretical results upon which our current understanding of coevolution rests. By anchoring each chapter in the biology of a well-studied species interaction and providing a step by step guide to model development, analysis, and interpretation, Nuismer takes the mystery out of mathematical modeling and provides readers with the tools they need to develop and analyze coevolutionary models of their own.

Author : John N. Thompson
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 388 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 2009-04-24
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780226797670

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The Coevolutionary Process by John N. Thompson Pdf

Traditional ecological approaches to species evolution have frequently studied too few species, relatively small areas, and relatively short time spans. In The Coevolutionary Process, John N. Thompson advances a new conceptual approach to the evolution of species interactions—the geographic mosaic theory of coevolution. Thompson demonstrates how an integrated study of life histories, genetics, and the geographic structure of populations yields a broader understanding of coevolution, or the development of reciprocal adaptations and specializations in interdependent species. Using examples of species interactions from an enormous range of taxa, Thompson examines how and when extreme specialization evolves in interdependent species and how geographic differences in specialization, adaptation, and the outcomes of interactions shape coevolution. Through the geographic mosaic theory, Thompson bridges the gap between the study of specialization and coevolution in local communities and the study of broader patterns seen in comparisons of the phylogenies of interacting species.

Author : Stephen Henry Schneider,Randi Londer
Publisher : Random House (NY)
Page : 586 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 1984
Category : Nature
ISBN : UOM:39015006404365

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The Coevolution of Climate and Life by Stephen Henry Schneider,Randi Londer Pdf

Author : John N. Thompson
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 510 pages
File Size : 45,9 Mb
Release : 2013-04-15
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780226018898

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Relentless Evolution by John N. Thompson Pdf

At a glance, most species seem adapted to the environment in which they live. Yet species relentlessly evolve, and populations within species evolve in different ways. Evolution, as it turns out, is much more dynamic than biologists realized just a few decades ago. In Relentless Evolution, John N. Thompson explores why adaptive evolution never ceases and why natural selection acts on species in so many different ways. Thompson presents a view of life in which ongoing evolution is essential and inevitable. Each chapter focuses on one of the major problems in adaptive evolution: How fast is evolution? How strong is natural selection? How do species co-opt the genomes of other species as they adapt? Why does adaptive evolution sometimes lead to more, rather than less, genetic variation within populations? How does the process of adaptation drive the evolution of new species? How does coevolution among species continually reshape the web of life? And, more generally, how are our views of adaptive evolution changing? Relentless Evolution draws on studies of all the major forms of life—from microbes that evolve in microcosms within a few weeks to plants and animals that sometimes evolve in detectable ways within a few decades. It shows evolution not as a slow and stately process, but rather as a continual and sometimes frenetic process that favors yet more evolutionary change.

Author : Xiaoyang Tang
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 301 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2021-01-21
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781108415293

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Coevolutionary Pragmatism by Xiaoyang Tang Pdf

Decades-long field research, investigate Chinese approach in Africa's development, reinterpret classics on industrial capitalism, and reveal effects of non-linear synergism

Author : Theodore H. Fleming,W. John Kress
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 640 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2013-10-03
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780226023328

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The Ornaments of Life by Theodore H. Fleming,W. John Kress Pdf

The average kilometer of tropical rainforest is teeming with life; it contains thousands of species of plants and animals. As The Ornaments of Life reveals, many of the most colorful and eye-catching rainforest inhabitants—toucans, monkeys, leaf-nosed bats, and hummingbirds to name a few—are an important component of the infrastructure that supports life in the forest. These fruit-and-nectar eating birds and mammals pollinate the flowers and disperse the seeds of hundreds of tropical plants, and unlike temperate communities, much of this greenery relies exclusively on animals for reproduction. Synthesizing recent research by ecologists and evolutionary biologists, Theodore H. Fleming and W. John Kress demonstrate the tremendous functional and evolutionary importance of these tropical pollinators and frugivores. They shed light on how these mutually symbiotic relationships evolved and lay out the current conservation status of these essential species. In order to illustrate the striking beauty of these “ornaments” of the rainforest, the authors have included a series of breathtaking color plates and full-color graphs and diagrams.