Evolution Development And Complexity

Author : Georgi Yordanov Georgiev,John M. Smart,Claudio L. Flores Martinez,Michael E. Price
Publisher : Springer
Page : 454 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 2019-06-25
Category : Science
ISBN : 9783030000752

Get Book

Evolution, Development and Complexity by Georgi Yordanov Georgiev,John M. Smart,Claudio L. Flores Martinez,Michael E. Price Pdf

This book explores the universe and its subsystems from the three lenses of evolutionary (contingent), developmental (predictable), and complex (adaptive) processes at all scales. It draws from prolific experts within the academic disciplines of complexity science, physical science, information and computer science, theoretical and evo-devo biology, cosmology, astrobiology, evolutionary theory, developmental theory, and philosophy. The chapters come from a Satellite Meeting, "Evolution, Development and Complexity" (EDC) hosted at the Conference on Complex Systems, in Cancun, 2017. The contributions have been peer-reviewed and contributors from outside the conference were invited to submit chapters to ensure full coverage of the topics. This book explores many issues within the field of EDC such as the interaction of evolutionary stochasticity and developmental determinism in biological systems and what they might teach us about these twin processes in other complex systems. This text will appeal to students and researchers within the complex systems and EDC fields.

Author : Georgi Yordanov Georgiev
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 454 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2019
Category : Cosmology
ISBN : 3030000761

Get Book

Evolution, Development and Complexity by Georgi Yordanov Georgiev Pdf

This book explores the universe and its subsystems from the three lenses of evolutionary (diversifying), developmental (converging), and complex (adaptive) processes at all scales. It draws from prolific experts within the academic disciplines of complexity science, physical science, information and computer science, theoretical and evo-devo biology, cosmology, astrobiology, evolutionary theory, developmental theory, and philosophy. The chapters come from a Satellite Meeting, "Evolution, Development and Complexity" (EDC) hosted at the Conference on Complex Systems, in Cancun, 2017. The contributions will be peer-reviewed and contributors from outside the conference will be invited to submit chapters to ensure full coverage of the topics. This book explores many issues within the field of EDC such as the interaction of evolutionary stochasticity and developmental determinism in biological systems and what they might teach us about these twin processes in other complex systems. This text will appeal to students and researchers within the complex systems and EDC fields. .

Author : John E. Mayfield
Publisher : Columbia University Press
Page : 417 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 2013-07-09
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780231535281

Get Book

The Engine of Complexity by John E. Mayfield Pdf

The concepts of evolution and complexity theory have become part of the intellectual ether permeating the life sciences, the social and behavioral sciences, and, more recently, management science and economics. In this book, John E. Mayfield elegantly synthesizes core concepts from multiple disciplines to offer a new approach to understanding how evolution works and how complex organisms, structures, organizations, and social orders can and do arise based on information theory and computational science. Intended for the intellectually adventuresome, this book challenges and rewards readers with a nuanced understanding of evolution and complexity that offers consistent, durable, and coherent explanations for major aspects of our life experiences. Numerous examples throughout the book illustrate evolution and complexity formation in action and highlight the core function of computation lying at the work's heart.

Author : Stanley N. Salthe
Publisher : MIT Press
Page : 388 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 1993
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 0262193353

Get Book

Development and Evolution by Stanley N. Salthe Pdf

Development and Evolution surveys and illuminates the key themes of rapidly changing fields and areas of controversy that the redefining the theory and philosophy of biology. It continues Stanley Salthe's investigation of evolutionary theory, begun in his influential book Evolving Hierarchical Systems, while negating the implicit philosophical mechanisms of much of that work. Here Salthe attempts to reinitiate a theory of biology from the perspective of development rather than from that of evolution, recognizing the applicability of general systems thinking to biological and social phenomena and pointing towards a non-Darwinian and even a postmodern biology.

Author : John Tyler Bonner
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 276 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 2020-12-08
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780691222110

Get Book

The Evolution of Complexity by Means of Natural Selection by John Tyler Bonner Pdf

John Tyler Bonner makes a new attack on an old problem: the question of how progressive increase in the size and complexity of animals and plants has occurred. "How is it," he inquires, "that an egg turns into an elaborate adult? How is it that a bacterium, given many millions of years, could have evolved into an elephant?" The author argues that we can understand this progression in terms of natural selection, but that in order to do so we must consider the role of development--or more precisely the role of life cycles--in evolutionary change. In a lively writing style that will be familiar to readers of his work The Evolution of Culture in Animals (Princeton, 1980), Bonner addresses a general audience interested in biology, as well as specialists in all areas of evolutionary biology. What is novel in the approach used here is the comparison of complexity inside the organism (especially cell differentiation) with the complexity outside (that is, within an ecological community). Matters of size at both these levels are closely related to complexity. The book shows how an understanding of the grand course of evolution can come from combining our knowledge of genetics, development, ecology, and even behavior.

Author : Patrick Bateson
Publisher : Open Book Publishers
Page : 134 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 2017-02-20
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781783742516

Get Book

Behaviour, Development and Evolution by Patrick Bateson Pdf

The role of parents in shaping the characters of their children, the causes of violence and crime, and the roots of personal unhappiness are central to humanity. Like so many fundamental questions about human existence, these issues all relate to behavioural development. In this lucid and accessible book, eminent biologist Professor Sir Patrick Bateson suggests that the nature/nurture dichotomy we often use to think about questions of development in both humans and animals is misleading. Instead, he argues that we should pay attention to whole systems, rather than to simple causes, when trying to understand the complexity of development. In his wide-ranging approach Bateson discusses why so much behaviour appears to be well-designed. He explores issues such as ‘imprinting’ and its importance to the attachment of offspring to their parents; the mutual benefits that characterise communication between parent and offspring; the importance of play in learning how to choose and control the optimal conditions in which to thrive; and the vital function of adaptability in the interplay between development and evolution. Bateson disputes the idea that a simple link can be found between genetics and behaviour. What an individual human or animal does in its life depends on the reciprocal nature of its relationships with the world about it. This knowledge also points to ways in which an animal’s own behaviour can provide the variation that influences the subsequent course of evolution. This has relevance not only for our scientific approaches to the systems of development and evolution, but also on how humans change institutional rules that have become dysfunctional, or design public health measures when mismatches occur between themselves and their environments. It affects how we think about ourselves and our own capacity for change.

Author : Werner Callebaut,Diego Rasskin-Gutman
Publisher : MIT Press
Page : 480 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 2005
Category : Computers
ISBN : 0262033267

Get Book

Modularity by Werner Callebaut,Diego Rasskin-Gutman Pdf

Modularity—the attempt to understand systems as integrations of partially independent and interacting units—is today a dominant theme in the life sciences, cognitive science, and computer science. The concept goes back at least implicitly to the Scientific (or Copernican) Revolution, and can be found behind later theories of phrenology, physiology, and genetics; moreover, art, engineering, and mathematics rely on modular design principles. This collection broadens the scientific discussion of modularity by bringing together experts from a variety of disciplines, including artificial life, cognitive science, economics, evolutionary computation, developmental and evolutionary biology, linguistics, mathematics, morphology, paleontology, physics, theoretical chemistry, philosophy, and the arts. The contributors debate and compare the uses of modularity, discussing the different disciplinary contexts of "modular thinking" in general (including hierarchical organization, near-decomposability, quasi-independence, and recursion) or of more specialized concepts (including character complex, gene family, encapsulation, and mosaic evolution); what modules are, why and how they develop and evolve, and the implication for the research agenda in the disciplines involved; and how to bring about useful cross-disciplinary knowledge transfer on the topic. The book includes a foreword by the late Herbert A. Simon addressing the role of near-decomposability in understanding complex systems. Contributors: Lee Altenberg, Lauren W. Ancel-Meyers, Carl Anderson, Robert B. Brandon, Angela D. Buscalioni, Raffaele Calabretta, Werner Callebaut, Anne De Joan, Rafael Delgado-Buscalioni, Gunther J. Eble, Walter Fontana, Fernand Gobet, Alicia de la Iglesia, Slavik V. Jablan, Luigi Marengo, Daniel W. McShea, Jason Mezey, D. Kimbrough Oller, Domenico Parisi, Corrado Pasquali, Diego Rasskin-Gutman, Gerhard Schlosser, Herbert A. Simon, Roger D. K. Thomas, Marco Valente, Boris M. Velichkovsky, Gunter P. Wagner, Rasmus G. Winter Vienna Series in Theoretical Biology

Author : Daniel W. McShea,Robert N. Brandon
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 186 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2010-07-15
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780226562278

Get Book

Biology's First Law by Daniel W. McShea,Robert N. Brandon Pdf

Life on earth is characterized by three striking phenomena that demand explanation: adaptation—the marvelous fit between organism and environment; diversity—the great variety of organisms; and complexity—the enormous intricacy of their internal structure. Natural selection explains adaptation. But what explains diversity and complexity? Daniel W. McShea and Robert N. Brandon argue that there exists in evolution a spontaneous tendency toward increased diversity and complexity, one that acts whether natural selection is present or not. They call this tendency a biological law—the Zero-Force Evolutionary Law, or ZFEL. This law unifies the principles and data of biology under a single framework and invites a reconceptualization of the field of the same sort that Newton’s First Law brought to physics. Biology’s First Law shows how the ZFEL can be applied to the study of diversity and complexity and examines its wider implications for biology. Intended for evolutionary biologists, paleontologists, and other scientists studying complex systems, and written in a concise and engaging format that speaks to students and interdisciplinary practitioners alike, this book will also find an appreciative audience in the philosophy of science.

Author : Hartmut Bossel
Publisher : BoD – Books on Demand
Page : 374 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2007
Category : Science
ISBN : 9783833481215

Get Book

Systems and Models by Hartmut Bossel Pdf

A multitude of complex systems and actors pursuing their own agenda shape the dynamics of our world. Better understanding of their actions and interactions is crucial, and can be achieved by a profound knowledge of systems and their properties, and their representation in models allowing simulation of probable behavior. Drawing on his extensive research and teaching experience in modeling and simulation of a wide range of systems - from engineering to social systems and ecosystems - the author presents the fundamental concepts and approaches for understanding and modeling the complex systems shaping the dynamics of our world. The book applies state space analysis and system dynamics to deal with the dynamic processes of "causal systems," discusses information processing approaches for modeling decision processes of "actors" and "agents," and uses aspects of the coevolutionary development of systems in their environment to deal with normative orientation, ethics, and evaluation of policies and long-term development. The concepts are applied in particular to the issue of sustainable development of human society in an evolving world. The book is complemented by a survey of system topics and of models from many fields, and by an extensive bibliography on the many systems-related subjects covered. Hartmut Bossel is Professor Emeritus of environmental systems analysis. He taught for many years at the University of California in Santa Barbara and the University of Kassel, Germany, where he was director of the Center for Environmental Systems Research until his retirement. He holds an engineering degree from the Technical University of Darmstadt, and a Ph.D. degree from the University of California at Berkeley. With a background in engineering, systems science, and mathematical modeling, he has led many research projects and future studies in different countries, developing computer simulation models and decision support systems in the areas of energy supply policy, global dynamics, orientation of behavior, agricultural policy, and forest dynamics and management. He has written numerous books on modeling and simulation of dynamic systems, social change and future paths, and has published widely in the scientific literature in several fields. Bossel is author of a System Zoo containing over one hundred simulation models of diverse systems.

Author : Rainer Feistel,Werner Ebeling
Publisher : Springer
Page : 256 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 1989-10-31
Category : Mathematics
ISBN : UOM:39015017731095

Get Book

Evolution of Complex Systems by Rainer Feistel,Werner Ebeling Pdf

Author : Eric J. Chaisson,Eric Chaisson
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2001-02-16
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780674009875

Get Book

Cosmic Evolution by Eric J. Chaisson,Eric Chaisson Pdf

Chaisson addresses some of the most basic issues we can contemplate: the origin of matter and the origin of life, and the ways matter, life, and radiation interact and change with time. He designs for us an expansive yet intricate model depicting the origin and evolution of all material structures.

Author : Brian Goodwin
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 279 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2020-09-01
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780691217802

Get Book

How the Leopard Changed Its Spots by Brian Goodwin Pdf

Do genes explain life? Can advances in evolutionary and molecular biology account for what we look like, how we behave, and why we die? In this powerful intervention into current biological thinking, Brian Goodwin argues that such genetic reductionism has important limits. Drawing on the sciences of complexity, the author shows how an understanding of the self-organizing patterns of networks is necessary for making sense of nature. Genes are important, but only as part of a process constrained by environment, physical laws, and the universal tendencies of complex adaptive systems. In a new preface for this edition, Goodwin reflects on the advances in both genetics and the sciences of complexity since the book's original publication.

Author : Max Pettersson
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 158 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 1996-10-10
Category : Science
ISBN : 052145400X

Get Book

Complexity and Evolution by Max Pettersson Pdf

This unique book ranges across the physical, biological and social sciences in the development of its primary theme, that there are nine major "integrative levels" that can be recognized. The term integrative levels was first used by Joseph Needham in 1937, and has two key features. The first is that members of a given integrative level are unified entities and the second is that a member of one level is commonly composed of parts that are members of the next lower level. Thus fundamental particles form Level 1 while Level 9 is that of sovereign states. This theme has been developed by Max Pettersson in a book that explores the many links among the physical, biological and social sciences, reaching wide-ranging and sometimes unexpected conclusions.

Author : Gerard A.J.M Jagers op Akkerhuis
Publisher : Springer
Page : 295 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 2016-10-18
Category : Science
ISBN : 9783319438023

Get Book

Evolution and Transitions in Complexity by Gerard A.J.M Jagers op Akkerhuis Pdf

This book discusses several recent theoretic advancements in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary integration in the field of evolution. While exploring novel views, the text maintains a close link with one of the most broadly held views on evolution, namely that of “Darwinian evolution.” This work puts forth a new point of view which allows researchers to define in detail the concept of evolution. To create this conceptual definition, the text applies a stringent object-based focus. With this focus, the editor has been able to develop an object-based pattern of evolution at the smallest scale. Subsequently, this smallest scale pattern is used as an innovative basis for generalizations. These generalizations create links between biological Darwinism and generalized Darwinism. The object-based approach that was used to suggest innovations in the field of Darwinian evolution also allowed for contributions to other topics, such as major evolutionary transitions theory, the definition of life and the relationships between evolution, self-organization and thermodynamics. Together, the chapters of this book and the multidisciplinary reflections and comments of various specialists on these chapters offer an exciting palette of innovative ideas.

Author : Talmy Givón,Masayoshi Shibatani
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
Page : 561 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2009
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9789027229991

Get Book

Syntactic Complexity by Talmy Givón,Masayoshi Shibatani Pdf

Complex hierarchic syntax is considered one of the hallmarks of human language. The highest level of syntactic complexity, recursive-embedded clauses, has been singled out by some for a special status as the apex of the uniquely-human language faculty – evolutionary but somehow immune to adaptive selection. This volume, coming out of a symposium held at Rice University in March 2008, tackles syntactic complexity from multiple developmental perspectives. We take it for granted that grammar is an adaptive instrument of communication, assembled upon the pre-existing platform of pre-linguistic cognition. Most of the papers in the volume deal with the two grand developmental trends of human language: diachrony, the communal enterprise directly responsible for fashioning synchronic morpho-syntax; and ontogeny, the individual endeavor directly responsible for the acquisition of competent grammatical performance. The genesis of syntactic complexity along these two developmental trends is considered alongside with the cognition and neurology of grammar and of syntactic complexity, and the evolutionary relevance of diachrony, ontogeny and pidginization is argued on general bio-evolutionary grounds. Lastly, several of the contributions to the volume suggest that recursive embedding is not in itself an adaptive target, but rather the by-product of two distinct adaptive gambits: the recruitment of conjoined clauses as modal operators on other clauses and the subsequent condensation of paratactic into syntactic structures.