TED Talk 2008. "Humans are the Pandoran species" The evolutionary algorithm (principle) of universal Darwinism. "The best idea that anybody ever had" . Explains all design. Variation, selection, heredity. Necessity. Dawkins on the selfish gene: Inform
Hypotesen om vår ”sociala hjärna”. Referat av bl a Robert Dunbars och hans medarbetare Susanne Shultz artikel i Science (7/9 2007). Skrivet av Staffan Ulfstrand professor em i ekologisk zoologi vid Uppsala universitet. KULTUR: "Observera att ”kultur” h
Nuba Vision Volume 2, Issue 1, October 2002 Last year Dr Kari Eloranta, a photographer and mathematician from Finland, travelled across North East Africa recording conditions for ordinary people throughout the region. The result is Year Zero Ground Zero, a captivating book of extraordinary photographs and perceptive commentary . The following is an extract from a chapter on the Nuba (written before the cease-fire came into effect) "During the hours of waiting for the flight out an analogy strikes me. Is the Nuba struggle in a way just a rerun of the match that took place somewhere around here eons ago? One branch of the homo-tree diversified into walking in the plains and developing tools while the other continued living the old way, up in the trees. In the end the former grew more resourceful, conquered the savannah and finally finished off his brothers in the branches. Two eras, two stories, one about biological evolution, the other about cultural evolution. Monsters have prevailed before. There is no progress, just evolution. A process blind to our wishes and judgements. I cannot fault the logic yet in my gut I hope I’m dead wrong."
The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race by Jared Diamond, Discover Magazine, May 01, 1999 "One straight forward example of what paleopathologists have learned from skeletons concerns historical changes in height. Skeletons from Greece and Turkey show that the average height of hunger[sic!]-gatherers toward the end of the ice ages was a generous 5' 9'' for men, 5' 5'' for women. With the adoption of agriculture, height crashed, and by 3000 B. C. had reached a low of only 5' 3'' for men, 5' for women. By classical times heights were very slowly on the rise again, but modern Greeks and Turks have still not regained the average height of their distant ancestors." "Hunter-gatherers practiced the most successful and longest-lasting life style in human history. In contrast, we're still struggling with the mess into which agriculture has tumbled us, and it's unclear whether we can solve it."
"As we survey this vast mass of popular fiction, hastily produced and voraciously devoured, we confess to a feeling of astonishment that no learned professor has written a book on the one serious omission in the Darwinian theory — the fact that what chiefly distinguishes man from the rest of creation is the faculty for telling stories. Many animals resort to deception from necessity, and act a lie to trap their dinner or to save their skins ; man alone tells stories for pleasure and profit. Great is the truth, and it shall prevail, cries the preacher ; but so conscious was the moralist of the weakness of the flesh that he had to lead up to his adage by telling one of the best stories in Hebrew literature. Man respects the truth, and generally stones the truth-teller ; but he loves and honours the maker of stories from the cradle to the tombstone. The thesis could easily be defended that man is a story-telling animal." -- A. Wyatt Tilby, "The Best-Seller Problem", The Edinburg Review: Or Critical Journal, Vol 236 No. 481 (July 1922) p 96.
"Starting in 2003, the scientists began teaming up in public talks in which they lay out their arguments in the form of a conversation. Filmmaker Gus Holwerda picks up this evolution as the pair take their skeptical show on the road, tangling with religious leaders, talk-show hosts and several thousand years of cultural inertia. The result is the feature-length film The Unbelievers, which had its world premiere in Toronto at the Hot Docs festival on Monday night." The Editor: "Christianity is dying, and good riddance, says Richard Dawkins "
av Anna Rotkirch Utkommit i Kontur 5/02, Ny Tid, 10.12.2002 "Vår okändaste finlandssvenska kändis? Jag tippar på Ullica Segerstråle, sociologen som de senaste tjugofem åren föjt med forskarnas debatter om gener, evolution och människans natur. För två år sedan publicerade Oxford University Press hennes digra bokslut, Defenders of the Truth - the Sociobiology Debate. Utomlands har den ivrigt kommenterats av de olika lägren. I Finland har boken också figurerat, men mest verkar den ha lästs av den handfull forskare, biologer och journalister som redan tidigare övertygats om att människans evolution har något med våra liv att göra."
Mikael Gewers anmälan av Frans de Waal: Empatins tidsålder – hur naturen lär oss skapa ett humanare samhälle i översättning av Bo Gustavsson (Karneval förlag)
Gunnar Fredriksson: "I Francis Fukuyamas succé "The End of History" existerar inga palestinier. I Samuel P. Huntington likaledes framgångsrika "The Clash of Cvilizations" förekommer de som ett hot mot Israel. I en aktuell och prisad bok av historikern Nia
Memoreringstekniken har gått från högaktad konst till nördstämplat partytrick. Men kanske är ars memorativa på väg att lyftas ur glömskan. Den amerikanske journalisten och författaren Joshua Foer är en av dem som har återupptäckt antikens minnespalats.
L'utopia tranquilla delle piante, watch the video-conference live from Genova! Prof. Mancuso speaks about plants in Genova Watch the video here: http://www.festivalscienzalive.it/site/home/conferenze/utopia-tranquilla-delle-piante.html 02/11/2011
Markus Långs recension av Nörretranders Homo Generosus i Niin & Näin : "Evoluutiopsykologit jättävät tutkimuksissaan elämänkohtalon ja kulttuurisesti periytyvät valmiudet huomiotta, vaikka ne vaikuttavat ihmisen käytökseen olennaisesti, ja etsivät selityksiä mieluummin esihistoriasta (mts. 57). Lieneekö tämä yksi muoto niin sanottua muinaisen kulta-ajan myyttiä: täydellisen ja eheän elämän ihanne (oma varhaislapsuus) projisoidaan kauas muinaisuuteen?"
To hear Musk tell it, Neuralink's hardware is either a state-of-the-art tool for understanding the brain, a clinical advance for people with neurological disorders, or the next step in human evolution