Karen Wong has a longtime interest in origins and evolution and we discuss what happens when you shift the definition of evolution. Old definition: Changes in gene frequencies acted upon by natural selection. New definition: Self-awareness at fractal levels of scale.
YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfgECbMnQOc
Podcast: https://evo2.org/podcasts/rocking-the-foundations-of-evolution/
Evolution 2.0 by Perry Marshall
Biology Transcends the Limits of Computation by Perry Marshall: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0079610721000365
The Importance of Henry H. Heng’s Genome Architecture Theory by R. Furst
The True Believer by Eric Hoffer: https://www.amazon.com/True-Believer-…
Perry’s conversation with Azra Raza about cancer: https://youtu.be/W2tbSS2dp9o
Cancer and Evolution Symposium with James Shapiro and Denis Noble: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_nVJ…
Download The First 3 Chapters of Evolution 2.0 For Free, Here – https://evo2.org/evolution/Where Did Life And The Genetic Code Come From? Can The Answer Build Superior AI? The #1 Mystery In Science Now Has A $10 Million Prize. Learn More About It, Here – https://www.herox.com/evolution2.0
I agree! Self-awareness points to the existence of a mental dimension.
I would go further and ask: How was inanimate matter in FOUR dimensional space-time able to evolve and access a FIFTH dimension, a mental dimension, one that all living things have discovered and exploited? The physical sciences conveniently overlook this question.
The answer may well throw new light on the ‘what is life?’ question and the nature of the process by which it emerged.
For our recent thoughts on this question see: On the Chemical Origin of Biological Cognition
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/12/12/2016
Addy I’m partway through reading this paper so far and it’s great. Bravo for your good work.
Great podcast. The part where you point out the lack of explanatory power of natural selection resonates very much with my understanding. I always point out how with natural selection (or the so all powerful “evolutionary advantage”) one can seemingly “explain” everything and even its opposite. This line of reasoning is then presented as a scientific established fact when it is just a sort of modern argumentativ magic wand that we apply whenever something can’t be explained. And this is only one of the many points raised in the podcast that makes clear how limited our present paradigm is. Thank you for raising these issues. Makes me feel less alone in mumbling on these questions. It is time that science becomes aware of its unwarranted extrapolations.
Marco,
“Natural Selection” is a non-explanation. It’s like asking how the Packers won the Super Bowl and someone says “Playoffs.” You say “What was their recruiting strategy?” and they say “Playoffs.” You say “What was their defensive strategy” and they say “Playoffs.”
No you’re not alone and these criticisms have been in hundreds maybe thousands of books and fallen on deaf ears.
From where I sit, this all started to change when Denis Noble organized this meeting in 2016: https://evo2.org/royal-society-evolution/
It didn’t stop the mindless chanting of “natural selection” from the hypnotized masses, but it did silence the previously militant Neo-Darwinian camp; the atmosphere in the field has been much more favorable to real progress.