trends & tendencies in universal biology
TRANSCRIPT
Trends & Tendencies in Universal Biology
Carlos Mariscal ISHPSSB
July 6, 2015
Candidate Universal Evolutionary Trends
Rosenberg, A. & McShea, D.W. 2008. Philosophy of Biology: A Contemporary Introduction. Routledge, p. 127-156
• Degrees of Perfection (Scala naturae, the great chain of being)
• Fitness• Size• Complexity
• Number of parts• Number of interactions• Differentiation of parts• Degree of functionality• Informational content• Energy Rate Density
• Diversity• Hierarchy• Ethicality? Sociality?
• Theory-laden observation/Observer error
• Artifact of conditions/ Limited to Earth
• Chance• Boundaries/
Constraints• Opposing forces• Byproducts of evolutionary
processes not considered
Confounding Factors
%
E
The Fragility of Trends
• Fragile – Sensitive to confounding factors
• Robust – Insensitive to confounding factors
Universal Initial Conditions
• Life began simply, so some of the candidate trends are trivially true, perhaps even robustly so.
• A different question: is there a general tendency toward any of these?
B A E
Eukaryotes First
‘Complex’‘Simple’
Mariscal, A. & Doolittle, W.F. Forthcoming. “Eukaryotes-first, how could that be?” PTRSB: B
Eukaryotes First
B A EB A E B A E
‘Complex’‘Simple’
Mariscal, A. & Doolittle, W.F. Forthcoming. “Eukaryotes-first, how could that be?” PTRSB: B
Trends & Tendencies
• Trend – directional change in the mean of all lineages according to some variable over time
• Tendency – expectation of a directional change in some variable in all lineages over time via some mechanism
≈Epistemic ≈Ontic
Carlos Mariscal Dalhousie University
Thank You
• for your attention • to NSERC for $$$ • to Smith, McShea,
Doolittle & Co.