Month: September 2022

LIMITS OF COMPLEXITY. “I present evidence that biological systems are near, and in some cases have reached, the limits of complexity. Such is evident from areas as diverse as extremophiles, nervous and sensory systems, enzymes such as Rubisco, complex symbioses and functional complexes such as teeth and arthropod tagmosis.” https://lnkd.in/euEN3Eh View in LinkedIn

INTELLECTUAL SIMPLICITY. “The paradox is that although evolution has run out of things to do, in the case of knowledge and wisdom the exact reverse appears to be the case. Here we have not reached the end of complexity.” https://lnkd.in/euEN3Eh View in LinkedIn

UNDERSTATEMENT. “We need to be careful not to under-estimate the complexity of some “primitive” organisms.” https://lnkd.in/euEN3Eh View in LinkedIn

NO PLAN. “It is commonplace that evolution has no fore-knowledge.” https://lnkd.in/euEN3Eh View in LinkedIn

COMMON VIEW. “The Darwinian mantra broadly holds that, other than the exigencies of the death of Solar Systems (and yet more distant catastrophes) evolution is both indeterminate and open-ended, with the widespread view that it is unpredictable and the implicit (albeit largely un-examined) assumption that there is no limit to its complexity.” https://lnkd.in/euEN3Eh View in LinkedIn

REACHING BIOLOGICAL LIMITS. “Can we make the case that life has already begun to reach the boundaries of the biological universe (however defined)?” https://lnkd.in/euEN3Eh View in LinkedIn

PHYSICAL LIMITS. “The fact that the limitations that terrestrial extremophiles have reached – be it in terms of temperature, pressure, salinity, pH, or water activity – seem to be close to those capable of carbon-based life forms anywhere.” https://lnkd.in/euEN3Eh View in LinkedIn

COBBLED TOGETHER IMPERFECTLY. “Again the Darwinian mantra is that what we see is good enough in its own way, no doubt capable of improvement should the adaptive circumstances demand, but in the grand scheme of things far from perfect. To be honest, a bodge-job, impressive enough, but the rivets showing everywhere.” https://lnkd.in/euEN3Eh View in LinkedIn

CLOSE TO LIMITS. “The evidence actually suggests otherwise, and in doing so indicates that, with one crucial exception, not only is there a limit to biological complexity but in a way analogous to the extremophiles these limits may be close to being reached.” https://lnkd.in/euEN3Eh View in LinkedIn

ENZYME LIMITS. “Take the protein Rubisco, of central importance in photosynthesis where as a carboxylase it acts as the enzyme central to the fixation of carbon. Yet, as is well-known, its rate of activity is cripplingly slow, explaining why it is the most abundant protein on the planet. It is difficult to think of an example where even a modest improvement in efficiency would not be adaptively highly significant, yet the only solution appears to be by rampantly convergent methods of carbon dioxide concentration, be they by carboxysomes.” https://lnkd.in/euEN3Eh View in LinkedIn