scholarly journals Stability-based sorting: The forgotten process behind (not only) biological evolution

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaroslav Flegr ◽  
Jan Toman
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
Static Stability ◽  
Main Process ◽  
Strict Sense ◽  
Broad Distribution ◽  
Evolutionary Consequences ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractNatural selection is considered to be the main process that drives biological evolution. It requires selected entities to originate dependent upon one another by the means of reproduction or copying, and for the progeny to inherit the qualities of their ancestors. However, natural selection is a manifestation of a more general persistence principle, whose temporal consequences we propose to name “stability-based sorting” (SBS). Sorting based on static stability, i.e., SBS in its strict sense and usual conception, favours characters that increase the persistence of their holders and act on all material and immaterial entities. Sorted entities could originate independently from each other, are not required to propagate and need not exhibit heredity. Natural selection is a specific form of SBS—sorting based on dynamic stability. It requires some form of heredity and is based on competition for the largest difference between the speed of generating its own copies and their expiration. SBS in its strict sense and selection thus have markedly different evolutionary consequences that are stressed in this paper. In contrast to selection, which is opportunistic, SBS is able to accumulate even momentarily detrimental characters that are advantageous for the long-term persistence of sorted entities. However, it lacks the amplification effect based on the preferential propagation of holders of advantageous characters. Thus, it works slower than selection and normally is unable to create complex adaptations. From a long-term perspective, SBS is a decisive force in evolution—especially macroevolution. SBS offers a new explanation for numerous evolutionary phenomena, including broad distribution and persistence of sexuality, altruistic behaviour, horizontal gene transfer, patterns of evolutionary stasis, planetary homeostasis, increasing ecosystem resistance to disturbances, and the universal decline of disparity in the evolution of metazoan lineages. SBS acts on all levels in all biotic and abiotic systems. It could be the only truly universal evolutionary process, and an explanatory framework based on SBS could provide new insight into the evolution of complex abiotic and biotic systems.

scholarly journals The Many Facets of Evolutionary Dynamics

1997 ◽  
Vol 05 (03) ◽  
pp. 325-339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Odo Diekmann
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Mathematical Description ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Many

In this note we present an outsider's view on the mathematical description of long term biological evolution as driven by natural selection. It is an outlook to the future, more than an account of what has been achieved so far.

scholarly journals Dynamical Disequilibrium, Transformation, and the Evolution and Development of Sustainable Worldviews

2013 ◽  
pp. 69-77
Author(s):  
Liane Gabora ◽  
Maegan Merrifield
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Human Culture ◽  
Evolution And Development ◽  
Cumulative Change ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Over Time ◽  
New Framework

This chapter begins by outlining a promising, new theoretical framework for the process by which human culture evolves inspired by the views of complexity theorists on the problem of how life began. Elements of culture, like species, evolve over time; that is, they exhibit cumulative change that is adaptive in nature. By studying how biological evolution got started, it is possible to gain insight into not just the specifics of biological evolution, but also general insights into the initiation of any evolutionary process that may be applicable to culture. The authors, thus, explore the implications of this new framework for culture on the transformative processes of individuals. Specifically, they address what this emerging perspective on cultural evolution implies for to go about attaining a sustainable worldview; that is, a web of habits, understandings, and ways of approaching situations that is conducive to the development of a sustainable world.

A theory of supply-driven evolution for cultural evolution

2013 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 92-98
Author(s):  
Julian Z. Xue
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
General Theory ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Historical Change ◽  
Current Understanding ◽  
Cultural Variation ◽  
Selection Of

A process akin to biological evolution is one of the most promising candidates today for producing a general theory of cultural evolution. Current understanding of this process focuses on both drift as well as the selection of cultural variation as the primary vehicles of cultural change. Here, I show that natural selection can produce cultural change in the direction of the generation of cultural variation. I show how this mechanism can result in long-term cultural trends and how it adds to known mechanisms. I present examples to show how this theory is compatible with documented cultural and historical change.

Evolutionary theory and social science

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elliott Sober
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
Research Programme ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Psychological Traits ◽  
Research Programmes ◽  
Survival And Reproduction

Ideas from evolutionary theory impinge on the social sciences in two ways. First, there is the research programme of sociobiology, which attempts to demonstrate the impact of biological evolution on important features of human mind and culture. Second, there is the idea that biological evolution provides a suggestive analogy for the processes that drive cultural change. Both research programmes have tended to focus on the idea of natural selection, even though the theory of biological evolution considers processes besides selection. Sociobiology attempts to show that the following conditional helps explain psychological traits just as it applies to traits of morphology and physiology: if a trait varies in a population, makes a difference for the survival and reproduction of individuals, and is influenced by genetic factors, then natural selection will lead the trait to change its frequency in the population. Models of cultural evolution are built on an analogous conditional: if a set of alternative ideas are found in a culture, and people tend to find some of these ideas more attractive than others, then the mix of ideas in the culture will change. Sociobiology and the understanding of cultural change as an evolutionary process are approaches that have a history and both will continue to be explored in the future. Each is a flexible instrument, which may be better suited to some tasks than to others, and may be handled well by some practitioners and poorly by others. As a consequence, neither can be said to be ‘verified’ and ‘falsified’ by their track records to date.

To Propagate and to Prosper

ruffin_darden ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 289-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tara J. Radin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Evolutionary Psychology ◽  
Stakeholder Theory ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
Moral Behavior ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Next Generation ◽  
Specific Focus ◽  
Insight Into

This article examines the contribution of nature and the sciences toward a deeper understanding of business. Integrating these disciplines with stakeholder theory opens up new avenues for thinking about business that will potentially offer greater success in addressing the disconnect between moral discretion and the behavior of businesspeople. The specific focus is on integration of modern Darwinism (evolutionary psychology) and business theory. According to modern Darwinism, there are insufficient resources for all genes to reproduce. Natural selection occurs as genes compete to reproduce and those best suited for survival are able to reproduce. During the struggle, human beings are motivated by impulses intended to further reproduction, which lead them into many fruitful endeavors—such as participation in corporations. As genes strive to be passed on to the next generation, a consequence is their contribution to productivity and prosperity. By developing insight into the evolutionary process, we can create mechanisms that help us to manage human behavior in order to promote moral behavior. Connecting people with their natural selves provides for a more robust understanding of business.

Turkish Muslims in a German city: Entrepreneurial and residential self-determination

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Sarah Hackett
Keyword(s):  
Residential Patterns ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
Self Employment ◽  
German City ◽  
Post War ◽  
Oral History Interviews ◽  
The City ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Term Objective

Drawing upon a collection of oral history interviews, this paper offers an insight into entrepreneurial and residential patterns and behaviour amongst Turkish Muslims in the German city of Bremen. The academic literature has traditionally argued that Turkish migrants in Germany have been pushed into self-employment, low-quality housing and segregated neighbourhoods as a result of discrimination, and poor employment and housing opportunities. Yet the interviews reveal the extent to which Bremen’s Turkish Muslims’ performances and experiences have overwhelmingly been the consequences of personal choices and ambitions. For many of the city’s Turkish Muslim entrepreneurs, self-employment had been a long-term objective, and they have succeeded in establishing and running their businesses in the manner they choose with regards to location and clientele, for example. Similarly, interviewees stressed the way in which they were able to shape their housing experiences by opting which districts of the city to live in and by purchasing property. On the whole, they perceive their entrepreneurial and residential practices as both consequences and mediums of success, integration and a loyalty to the city of Bremen. The findings are contextualised within the wider debate regarding the long-term legacy of Germany’s post-war guest-worker system and its position as a “country of immigration”.

Specific features of long-term domestication of australian crayfish Cherax quadricarinatus in conditions of the western part of Russian Federation

2018 ◽  
Vol 194 ◽  
pp. 188-192
Author(s):  
D. I. Shokasheva
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Cherax Quadricarinatus ◽  
Local Environments ◽  
Local Species ◽  
Adaptive Ability

Natural populations of crayfish are in depression in Russia and local species are not cultivated. In this situation, experimental cultivation of allochtonous australian crayfish Cherax quadricarinatus is conducted. This species is distinguished by high reproductive abilities and good consumer properties. It has domesticated in Russia spontaneously and produced 9–10 generations in Astrakhan Region. Certain natural selection in the process of domestication provides adaptive ability of this species to local environments and its capabil­ity to reproduce a viable progeny, so there is no doubts in good prospects of its cultivation in industrial conditions.

Randomness and Complexity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven E. Vigdor
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
Rna World ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Variable Theory ◽  
Cosmological Natural Selection ◽  
Einstein Podolsky Rosen ◽  
World Hypothesis ◽  
Rna World Hypothesis

Chapter 7 describes the fundamental role of randomness in quantum mechanics, in generating the first biomolecules, and in biological evolution. Experiments testing the Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen paradox have demonstrated, via Bell’s inequalities, that no local hidden variable theory can provide a viable alternative to quantum mechanics, with its fundamental randomness built in. Randomness presumably plays an equally important role in the chemical assembly of a wide array of polymer molecules to be sampled for their ability to store genetic information and self-replicate, fueling the sort of abiogenesis assumed in the RNA world hypothesis of life’s beginnings. Evidence for random mutations in biological evolution, microevolution of both bacteria and antibodies and macroevolution of the species, is briefly reviewed. The importance of natural selection in guiding the adaptation of species to changing environments is emphasized. A speculative role of cosmological natural selection for black-hole fecundity in the evolution of universes is discussed.

Moving Songs

2019 ◽  
pp. 590-606
Author(s):  
Sally Treloyn ◽  
Matthew Dembal Martin ◽  
Rona Goonginda Charles
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Knowledge Transmission ◽  
Intercultural Relationships ◽  
Cultural Negotiation ◽  
Intercultural Collaboration ◽  
Present Collection ◽  
Intergenerational Knowledge ◽  
Early Phases ◽  
Insight Into

Repatriation has become almost ubiquitous in ethnomusicological research on Australian Indigenous song. This article provides insights into processes of a repatriation-centered song revitalization project in the Kimberley, northwest Australia. Authored by an ethnomusicologist and two members of the Ngarinyin cultural heritage community, the article provides firsthand accounts of the early phases of a long-term repatriation-centered project referred to locally as the Junba Project. The authors provide a sample of narratives and dialogues that deliver insight into experiences of the work of identifying recordings “in the archive” and cultural negotiation and use of recordings “on Country.” The entanglement of local epistemological frameworks with past and present collection, archival research, repatriation, and dissemination for intergenerational knowledge transmission between spirits, Country, and the living, is explored, showing how recordings move song knowledge from community to archive to community and from generation to generation, and move people in present-day communities. The chapter considers how these “moving songs” allow an interrogation of the fraught endeavor of intercultural collaboration in the pursuit of revitalizing Indigenous song traditions. It positions repatriation as a method that can support intergenerational knowledge transmission and as a method to consider past and present intercultural relationships within research projects and between cultural heritage communities and collecting institutions.

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