Evolution
« Previous EntriesThe Music Of Biological Xerox Machines
Sunday, December 4th, 2011When I was a teenager, I used to watch a lot of MTV and listen to the radio. I’d go play basketball in the recreation center and inside, the radio would be playing music from Matchbox Twenty, Goo Goo Dolls, and Third Eye Blind. Good memories and good times! I’d spend hours in the [...]
Artificial Evolution
Thursday, November 24th, 2011Tonight I want to briefly discuss artificial evolution using computer simulations. This is one of the coolest things ever. I wish I had time to actually write programs which do these things. This first video is rather ancient but I chose to include it because of how well it communicates the ideas. A computer programmer [...]
The Secret Life Of Chaos
Sunday, July 10th, 2011Lately I’ve been discussing emergence and self-organization. Turns out the BBC created an entire hour-long program on the subject. It’s entitled The Secret Life Of Chaos. Nice! You can watch it below.
A Darwinian Theory Of Beauty
Wednesday, November 24th, 2010This is a TED talk with Dr. Denis Dutton discussing how we evolved our sense of beauty. What I’ve always found fascinating about sexual selection is that it can lead to selection pressures toward higher intelligence, increased motor skills, and other more highly developed sensory organs. In humans, it likely gave us wit, humor, our [...]
The Puzzle Of Suicide
Wednesday, November 24th, 2010Suicide is a strange issue if you really sit down and think about it. Why would human beings evolve to, at times, desire suicide? What possible benefit could that confer upon our species? If we’re survival machines concerned with reproducing and replicating ourselves, what purpose does suicide have? Well, I’ve had a lot of free [...]
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