Emergence, Intelligent Design, and Artificial Intelligence
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What Is a Complex Adaptive System?
PROJECT GUTS What is a Complex Adaptive System? Introduction During the last three decades a leap has been made from the application of computing to help scientists ‘do’ science to the integration of computer science concepts, tools and theorems into the very fabric of science. The modeling of complex adaptive systems (CAS) is an example of such an integration of computer science into the very fabric of science; models of complex systems are used to understand, predict and prevent the most daunting problems we face today; issues such as climate change, loss of biodiversity, energy consumption and virulent disease affect us all. The study of complex adaptive systems, has come to be seen as a scientific frontier, and an increasing ability to interact systematically with highly complex systems that transcend separate disciplines will have a profound affect on future science, engineering and industry as well as in the management of our planet’s resources (Emmott et al., 2006). The name itself, “complex adaptive systems” conjures up images of complicated ideas that might be too difficult for a novice to understand. Instead, the study of CAS does exactly the opposite; it creates a unified method of studying disparate systems that elucidates the processes by which they operate. A complex system is simply a system in which many independent elements or agents interact, leading to emergent outcomes that are often difficult (or impossible) to predict simply by looking at the individual interactions. The “complex” part of CAS refers in fact to the vast interconnectedness of these systems. Using the principles of CAS to study these topics as related disciplines that can be better understood through the application of models, rather than a disparate collection of facts can strengthen learners’ understanding of these topics and prepare them to understand other systems by applying similar methods of analysis (Emmott et al., 2006). -
Intelligent Design, Abiogenesis, and Learning from History: Dennis R
Author Exchange Intelligent Design, Abiogenesis, and Learning from History: Dennis R. Venema A Reply to Meyer Dennis R. Venema Weizsäcker’s book The World View of Physics is still keeping me very busy. It has again brought home to me quite clearly how wrong it is to use God as a stop-gap for the incompleteness of our knowledge. If in fact the frontiers of knowledge are being pushed back (and that is bound to be the case), then God is being pushed back with them, and is therefore continually in retreat. We are to find God in what we know, not in what we don’t know; God wants us to realize his presence, not in unsolved problems but in those that are solved. Dietrich Bonhoeffer1 am thankful for this opportunity to nature, is the result of intelligence. More- reply to Stephen Meyer’s criticisms over, this assertion is proffered as the I 2 of my review of his book Signature logical basis for inferring design for the in the Cell (hereafter Signature). Meyer’s origin of biological information: if infor- critiques of my review fall into two gen- mation only ever arises from intelli- eral categories. First, he claims I mistook gence, then the mere presence of Signature for an argument against bio- information demonstrates design. A few logical evolution, rendering several of examples from Signature make the point my arguments superfluous. Secondly, easily: Meyer asserts that I have failed to refute … historical scientists can show that his thesis by not providing a “causally a presently acting cause must have adequate alternative explanation” for the been present in the past because the origin of life in that the few relevant cri- proposed candidate is the only known tiques I do provide are “deeply flawed.” cause of the effect in question. -
Organization, Self-Organization, Autonomy and Emergence: Status and Challenges
Organization, Self-Organization, Autonomy and Emergence: Status and Challenges Sven Brueckner 1 Hans Czap 2 1 New Vectors LLC 3520 Green Court, Suite 250, Ann Arbor, MI 48105-1579, USA Email: [email protected] http://www.altarum.net/~sbrueckner 2 University of Trier, FB IV Business Information Systems I D-54286 Trier, Germany Email: [email protected] http://www.wi.uni-trier.de/ Abstract: Development of IT-systems in application react and adapt autonomously to changing requirements. domains is facing an ever-growing complexity resulting from Therefore, approaches that rely on the fundamental principles a continuous increase in dynamics of processes, applications- of self-organization and autonomy are growing in acceptance. and run-time environments and scaling. The impact of this Following such approaches, software system functionality trend is amplified by the lack of central control structures. As is no longer explicitly designed into its component processes a consequence, controlling this complexity and dynamics is but emerges from lower-level interactions that are one of the most challenging requirements of today’s system purposefully unaware of the system-wide behavior. engineers. Furthermore, organization, the meaningful progression of The lack of a central control instance immediately raises local sensing, processing and action, is achieved by the the need for software systems which can react autonomously system components themselves at runtime and in response to to changing environmental requirements and conditions. the current state of the environment and the problem that is to Therefore, a new paradigm is necessary how to build be solved, rather than being enforced from the “outside” software systems changing radically the way one is used to through design or external control. -
Arguments from Design
Arguments from Design: A Self-defeating Strategy? Victoria S. Harrison University of Glasgow This is an archived version of ‘Arguments form Design: A Self-defeating Strategy?’, published in Philosophia 33 (2005): 297–317. Dr V. Harrison Department of Philosophy 69 Oakfield Avenue University of Glasgow Glasgow G12 8LT Scotland UK E-mail: [email protected] Arguments from Design: A Self-defeating Strategy? Abstract: In this article, after reviewing traditional arguments from design, I consider some more recent versions: the so-called ‘new design arguments’ for the existence of God. These arguments enjoy an apparent advantage over the traditional arguments from design by avoiding some of Hume’s famous criticisms. However, in seeking to render religion and science compatible, it seems that they require a modification not only of our scientific understanding but also of the traditional conception of God. Moreover, there is a key problem with arguments from design that Mill raised to which the new arguments seem no less vulnerable than the older versions. The view that science and religion are complementary has at least one significant advantage over other positions, such as the view that they are in an antagonistic relationship or the view that they are so incommensurable that they are neither complementary nor antagonistic. The advantage is that it aspires to provide a unified worldview that is sensitive to the claims of both science and religion. And surely, such a worldview, if available, would seem to be superior to one in which, say, scientific and religious claims were held despite their obvious contradictions. -
Toward an Extended Evolutionary Synthesis 10-13 July 2008
18th Altenberg Workshop in Theoretical Biology 2008 Toward an Extended Evolutionary Synthesis 10-13 July 2008 organized by Massimo Pigliucci and Gerd B. Müller Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research Altenberg, Austria The topic More than 60 years have passed since the conceptual integration of several strands of evolutionary theory into what has come to be called the Modern Synthesis. Despite major advances since, in all methodological and disciplinary domains of biology, the Modern Synthesis framework has remained surprisingly static and is still regarded as the standard theoretical paradigm of evolutionary biology. But for some time now there have been calls for an expansion of the Synthesis framework through the integration of more recent achievements in evolutionary theory. The challenge for the present workshop is clear: How do we make sense, conceptually, of the astounding advances in biology since the 1940s, when the Modern Synthesis was taking shape? Not only have we witnessed the molecular revolution, from the discovery of the structure of DNA to the genomic era, we are also grappling with the increasing feeling – as reflected, for example, by the proliferation of “-omics” (proteomics, metabolomics, “interactomics,” and even “phenomics”) – that we just don't have the theoretical and analytical tools necessary to make sense of the bewildering diversity and complexity of living organisms. By contrast, in organismal biology, a number of new approaches have opened up new theoretical horizons, with new possibilities -
On the Interaction of Function, Constraint and Complexity in Evolutionary Systems
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON FACULTY OF PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING ELECTRONICS AND COMPUTER SCIENCE Volume 1 of 1 On The Interaction Of Function, Constraint And Complexity In Evolutionary Systems by Adam Paul Davies Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy April 2014 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON ABSTRACT FACULTY OF PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING Electronics and Computer Science Doctor of Philosophy ON THE INTERACTION OF FUNCTION, CONSTRAINT AND COMPLEXITY IN EVOLUTIONARY SYSTEMS by Adam Paul Davies Biological evolution contains a general trend of increasing complexity of the most complex organisms. But artificial evolution experiments based on the mechanisms described in the current theory generally fail to reproduce this trend; instead, they commonly show systematic trends of complexity minimisation. In this dissertation we seek evolutionary mechanisms that can explain these apparently conflicting observations. To achieve this we use a reverse engineering approach by building computational simulations of evolution. One highlighted problem is that even if complexity is beneficial, evolutionary simulations struggle with apparent roadblocks that prevent them from scaling to complexity. Another is that even without roadblocks, it is not clear what drives evolution to become more complex at all. With respect to the former, a key roadblock is how to evolve ‘irreducibly complex’ or ‘non- decomposable’ functions. Evidence from biological evolution suggests a common way to achieve this is by combining existing functions – termed ‘tinkering’ or ‘building block evolution’. But in simulation this approach generally fails to scale across multiple levels of organisation in a recursive manner. We provide a model that identifies the problem hindering recursive evolution as increasing ‘burden’ in the form of ‘internal selection’ as joined functions become more complex. -
1 Emergence of Universal Grammar in Foreign Word Adaptations* Shigeko
1 Emergence of Universal Grammar in foreign word adaptations* Shigeko Shinohara, UPRESA 7018 University of Paris III/CNRS 1. Introduction There has been a renewal of interest in the study of loanword phonology since the recent development of constraint-based theories. Such theories readily express target structures and modifications that foreign inputs are subject to (e.g. Paradis and Lebel 1994, Itô and Mester 1995a,b). Depending on how the foreign sounds are modified, we may be able to make inferences about aspects of the speaker's grammar for which the study of the native vocabulary is either inconclusive or uninformative. At the very least we expect foreign words to be modified in accordance with productive phonological processes and constraints (Silverman 1992, Paradis and Lebel 1994). It therefore comes as some surprise when patterns of systematic modification arise for which the rules and constraints of the native system have nothing to say or even worse contradict. I report a number of such “emergent” patterns that appear in our study of the adaptations of French words by speakers of Japanese (Shinohara 1997a,b, 2000). I claim that they pose a learnability problem. My working hypothesis is that these emergent patterns are reflections of Universal Grammar (UG). This is suggested by the fact that the emergent patterns typically correspond to well-established crosslinguistic markedness preferences that are overtly and robustly attested in the synchronic phonologies of numerous other languages. It is therefore natural to suppose that these emergent patterns follow from the default parameter settings or constraint rankings inherited from the initial stages of language acquisition that remain latent in the mature grammar. -
Clunio Populations to Different Tidal Conditions
Genetic adaptation in emergence time of Clunio populations to different tidal conditions DIETRICH NEUMANN Zoologisches Institut der Universitiit Wiirzburg, Wiirzburg KURZFASSUNG: Genetische Adaptation der Schliipfzeiten yon Clunio-Populationen an verschiedene Gezeitenbedingungen. Die Schliipfzeiten der in der Gezeitenzone Iebenden Clunio-Arten (Diptera, Chironomidae) sind mit bestimmten Wasserstandsbedingungen syn- chronisiert, und zwar derart, dat~ die nnmittelbar anschlief~ende Fortpflanzung der kurz- lebigen Imagines auf dem trockengefallenen Habitat stattfinden kann. Wenn das Habitat einer Clunio-Art in der mittleren Gezeitenzone liegt und parallel zu dem halbt~igigen Gezeiten- zyklus (T = 12,4 h) zweimal t~iglich auftaucht, dann kann sich eine 12,4stiindige Schliipf- periodik einstellen (Beispiel: Clunio takahashii). Wenn das Habitat in der unteren Gezeiten- zone liegt und nur um die Zeit der Springtiden auftaucht, dann ist eine 15t~igige (semilunare) SchRipfperiodik zu erwarten (Beispiele: Clunio marinus und C. mecliterraneus). Diese 15t~igige Schliipfperiodik ist synchronisiert mit bestimmten Niedrigwasserbedingungen, die an einem Kiistenort alle 15 Tage jewqils um die gleiche Tageszeit auftreten. Sie wird daher dutch zwei Daten eindeutig gekennzeichnet: (1) die lunaren Schliipftage (wenige aufeinanderfolgende Tage um Voll- und Neumond) und (2) die t~igliche Schliipfzeit. Wie experimentelle Untersuchungen iiber die Steuerung der Schliipfperiodik zeigten, kiSnnen die Tiere beide Daten richtig voraus- bestimmen. Die einzelnen Kiistenpopulationen -
THE PAST of a DELUSION by Warren Sturgis Mcculloch
Winter-Edition 2007 THE PAST OF A DELUSION by Warren Sturgis McCulloch Englisch Deutsch Editorial Editorial By Joachim Paul, editor of von Joachim Paul, Hrsg.: www.vordenker.de www.vordenker.de To make Warren McCulloch's essay Den aus dem Jahr 1953 stammenden Aufsatz "THE PAST OF A DELUSION" from the "THE PAST OF A DELUSION" von Warren year 1953 now available in a German McCulloch als Arbeitstext auch in deutscher translation is in need to be explained. Sprache zugänglich zu machen, bedarf einer erläuternden Anmerkung. Undoubtedly Warren Sturgis McCulloch Warren Sturgis McCulloch ist unbestritten is one of the leading scientists of the einer der wichtigsten Wissenschaftler des 20. 20th century. His influence ranges from Jahrhunderts. Sein Einfluß reicht von den the early days of the Macy-Conferences frühen Tagen der Macy-Konferenzen über das over MIT and Biological Computer Lab in MIT und das Biological Computer Lab in Urbana, Illinois to the foundation of the Urbana, Illinois, bis hin zur Gründung des renowned "Santa Fe Institute for renommierten "Santa Fe Institute for Sciences Sciences of Complexity", where one of of Complexity", zu dessen bekannteren Mitar- the more prominent collaborators was beitern der Mediziner, Biochemiker und Biophy- the physician, biochemist and biophysi- siker Stuart Kauffman gehörte, zeitweilig ein cist Stuart Kauffman, a temporary Schüler McCullochs. 1927 bis 1934, bevor disciple of McCulloch. Before McCulloch McCulloch, einer der Väter von Kybernetik und returned to the academic world and Neuroinformatik, -
Intelligent Design Creationism and the Constitution
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Washington University St. Louis: Open Scholarship Washington University Law Review Volume 83 Issue 1 2005 Is It Science Yet?: Intelligent Design Creationism and the Constitution Matthew J. Brauer Princeton University Barbara Forrest Southeastern Louisiana University Steven G. Gey Florida State University Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_lawreview Part of the Constitutional Law Commons, Education Law Commons, First Amendment Commons, Religion Law Commons, and the Science and Technology Law Commons Recommended Citation Matthew J. Brauer, Barbara Forrest, and Steven G. Gey, Is It Science Yet?: Intelligent Design Creationism and the Constitution, 83 WASH. U. L. Q. 1 (2005). Available at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_lawreview/vol83/iss1/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law School at Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Washington University Law Review by an authorized administrator of Washington University Open Scholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Washington University Law Quarterly VOLUME 83 NUMBER 1 2005 IS IT SCIENCE YET?: INTELLIGENT DESIGN CREATIONISM AND THE CONSTITUTION MATTHEW J. BRAUER BARBARA FORREST STEVEN G. GEY* TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................... 3 INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................. -
Emanuele Serrelli Nathalie Gontier Editors Explanation, Interpretation
Interdisciplinary Evolution Research 2 Emanuele Serrelli Nathalie Gontier Editors Macroevolution Explanation, Interpretation and Evidence Interdisciplinary Evolution Research Volume 2 Series editors Nathalie Gontier, Lisbon, Portugal Olga Pombo, Lisbon, Portugal [email protected] About the Series The time when only biologists studied evolution has long since passed. Accepting evolution requires us to come to terms with the fact that everything that exists must be the outcome of evolutionary processes. Today, a wide variety of academic disciplines are therefore confronted with evolutionary problems, ranging from physics and medicine, to linguistics, anthropology and sociology. Solving evolutionary problems also necessitates an inter- and transdisciplinary approach, which is why the Modern Synthesis is currently extended to include drift theory, symbiogenesis, lateral gene transfer, hybridization, epigenetics and punctuated equilibria theory. The series Interdisciplinary Evolution Research aims to provide a scholarly platform for the growing demand to examine specific evolutionary problems from the perspectives of multiple disciplines. It does not adhere to one specific academic field, one specific school of thought, or one specific evolutionary theory. Rather, books in the series thematically analyze how a variety of evolutionary fields and evolutionary theories provide insights into specific, well-defined evolutionary problems of life and the socio-cultural domain. Editors-in-chief of the series are Nathalie Gontier and Olga Pombo. The -
Evidence for Design in Physics and Biology: from the Origin of the Universe to the Origin of Life
52 stephen c. meyer Pages 53–111 of Science and Evidence for Design in the Universe. The Proceedings of the Wethersfield Institute. Michael Behe, STEPHEN C. MEYER William A. Dembski, and Stephen C. Meyer (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2001. 2000 Homeland Foundation.) EVIDENCE FOR DESIGN IN PHYSICS AND BIOLOGY: FROM THE ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSE TO THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 1. Introduction In the preceding essay, mathematician and probability theo- rist William Dembski notes that human beings often detect the prior activity of rational agents in the effects they leave behind.¹ Archaeologists assume, for example, that rational agents pro- duced the inscriptions on the Rosetta Stone; insurance fraud investigators detect certain ‘‘cheating patterns’’ that suggest intentional manipulation of circumstances rather than ‘‘natu- ral’’ disasters; and cryptographers distinguish between random signals and those that carry encoded messages. More importantly, Dembski’s work establishes the criteria by which we can recognize the effects of rational agents and distinguish them from the effects of natural causes. In brief, he shows that systems or sequences that are both ‘‘highly com- plex’’ (or very improbable) and ‘‘specified’’ are always produced by intelligent agents rather than by chance and/or physical- chemical laws. Complex sequences exhibit an irregular and improbable arrangement that defies expression by a simple formula or algorithm. A specification, on the other hand, is a match or correspondence between an event or object and an independently given pattern or set of functional requirements. As an illustration of the concepts of complexity and speci- fication, consider the following three sets of symbols: 53 54 stephen c.