Year: 2022

PROKARYOTE LIMITED COMPLEXITY. "All complex life is composed of eukaryotic (nucleated) cells. The eukaryotic cell arose from prokaryotes just once in four billion years, and otherwise prokaryotes show no tendency to evolve greater complexity. Why not?” https://lnkd.in/epWvSvD View in LinkedIn

PROKARYOTIC CONSTRAINTS. “Prokaryotic genome size is constrained by bioenergetics. The endosymbiosis that gave rise to mitochondria restructured the distribution of DNA in relation to bioenergetic membranes, permitting a remarkable 200,000-fold expansion in the number of genes expressed." https://lnkd.in/epWvSvD View in LinkedIn

NON-ADAPTIVE EVOLUTION. "Genome complexity is correlated with biological complexity. A recent paper by Michael Lynch proposes that evolution of complex genomic architecture was driven primarily by non-adaptive stochastic forces, rather than by adaptive evolution. A general negative relationship between selection efficiency and genome complexity provides a strong support for this hypothesis." https://lnkd.in/ePaUq-z View in LinkedIn

CULTURAL EVOLUTION. "Once culture originates, it has the capacity to evolve on its own, and the past century has shown an explosion of technological culture, including notably the creation of computing machines and complex distributed informational networks connecting them." https://lnkd.in/dsMZPii View in LinkedIn

TYPES OF INFORMATION. "Nature is full of hierarchical and symbiotic structures which are optimally designed in all design aspects. Ingenious solutions in nature are transmitted by genetic codes. Human information is not transferable genetically but has to be studied, stored to design codes and transmitted by education." https://lnkd.in/dYdY4x3 View in LinkedIn

NEW HUMAN ECOLOGY. "The internet is the decisive technology of the Information Age, and with the explosion of wireless communication in the early twenty-first century, we can say that humankind is now entirely connected." https://lnkd.in/dsHe6fk View in LinkedIn

FASTER CHANGE. "Cultural evolution is expected to be faster than biological evolution because of its Lamarckian nature, and because cultural information is transmitted through different routes than genetic information." https://lnkd.in/du2rR_7 View in LinkedIn

IS THE INFO TECH REVOLUTION not just an extension of our biological evolution and the increasing global information is a consequence of our genetics? View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this two weekend noodling on the evolution of genetic and cultural complexity. For sure there are ancient creatures that have taken the path of outsourcing and streamlining their capacities, such as viruses, and thus appear deceptively simple. As usual, with nature there is rarely a single answer or a single path, but rather, a bewildering diversity of schemes that keep us forever fascinated with the flickering panoply of biology. View in LinkedIn

INCREMENTAL TIPPING POINT. "Once sophisticated enough, an AI will be able to engage in what's called "recursive self-improvement." As an AI becomes smarter and more capable, it will subsequently become better at the task of developing its internal cognitive functions. In turn, these modifications will kickstart a cascading series of improvements, each one making the AI smarter at the task of improving itself. It's an advantage that we biological humans simply don't have." https://lnkd.in/dp3ZKye View in LinkedIn