AI Links - Evolution Links

Computational Evolution Natural Evolution Human Evolution

Evolution Links

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Computational Evolution

• CA686 AI notes - includes Machine Evolution

• Evolutionary computation
• Evolutionary Algorithms
• Genetic Algorithms

• Artificial Life
• Genetic Programming

• FAQ of comp.ai.genetic
• ENCORE repository
• Self-replication

• Swarm simulation platform
• Prediction Company

• Stuart Kauffman argues in At Home in the Universe that biology is driven by:
  1. natural self-organisation of complex systems
  2. natural selection
  3. historical accident

• Evolving 3-D Morphology

• Tom Ray
  • Tierra

• International Society of Artificial Life (ISAL)
• Hugo de Garis
• David Goldberg
• John Koza
• Univ. Sussex, Brighton
  • Evolutionary and Adaptive Systems group

• The MIT Press, publishers of:
  • Artificial Life
  • Evolutionary Computation

ALife online

• AI programs online
• robots online

Chaotic and Complex Systems

• Dynamical systems, it seems to me, are just a subset of computational systems. I agree, of course, that they are the type of computational systems of the most relevance to cognitive science.
• Free Univ. Brussels (AI lab)
• Free Univ. Brussels (Principia Cybernetica project)
• Frankenstein (1818) by Mary Shelley
• Evolutionary history (Jared Diamond)

• Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, by Kevin Kelly, is my favourite popular intro to this whole field. The writing is poetic, powerful and sometimes beautiful. AI has finally made that long-postponed call to Down House to pick up the waiting Darwin, and together we're off into a more optimistic, biological future.

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Natural Evolution

• Evolution
• Evolution category
• Transitional fossils
• List of transitional fossils

• Reason, logic, evidence and argument:
  • How to Construct a Logical Argument
  • Logical Fallacies
  • The Fallacy Files

• The talk.origins archive (see site) is the best place to go for an understanding of why evolutionary biology is just normal science, while "creationism" is not science, but religion.
  • talk.origins (and in)
  • Index
  • Introduction to Evolutionary Biology
  • Transitional Vertebrate Fossils FAQ
  • EvoWiki

• Evolutionary and Geological Timelines (and in more detail)
  • The Age of the Earth
  • Evolutionary/Geological Timeline

• Taxonomy
  • The Tree of Life
  • funet.fi taxonomy (direct to search)

• Show last common ancestor of two species (e.g. human with chimp, dog, mouse, earwig, tuna, carrot)

• Richard Dawkins
  • Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker, 1986.
  • Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, 1976.
  • Interview with Dawkins on evolution in Wired

Bad design

The argument from bad design is one of the strongest arguments that living things are evolved, not designed.

• Argument from poor design
• Vestigial structures
• Evidence for Jury-Rigged Design in Nature
• Short and long lists of vestigial features in organisms, by Loren Petrich
• 10 Worst Evolutionary Designs

Charles Darwin

• Charles Darwin
• On the Origin of Species (1859)
  • Final chapter: "There is grandeur in this view of life ... that ... from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved."

• Why I hate the "Darwin Awards":
  • I really hate the "Darwin Awards" that laugh at the death of innocent people. They are sick and cruel and pathetic enough as it is. But abusing the name of a great genius is unforgiveable.
  • Unlike many geniuses, Darwin was a nice guy, and very much a role model. Read a good biography of him and you will see. If there is one thing he would have hated more than "creationism" in the modern world, it would be the "Darwin Awards". He would have absolutely hated these disgusting awards that abuse his name.

"Creationism" and "Intelligent design"

Evolutionary biology conflicts with some people's religious beliefs in a way that most branches of science do not.

As a result, it is the object of controversy for some religious people. It is a controversy caused entirely by religion, not by science. If you did not have those religious beliefs, you would not find the science remotely controversial.

• Creation-evolution controversy
• Creationism
• Intelligent design (i.e. Creationism)

• talkorigins.org
  • An Index to Creationist Claims
  • The General Anti-Creationism FAQ (and here)

• Argument from Design
  • Watchmaker analogy
  • Argument from poor design

• Similar theories to creationism:
  • Last Thursdayism - The idea that the world was created last Thursday, but with the appearance of age: people's memories, history books, fossils, light already on the way from distant stars, and so forth.
  • Geocentrism
  • Flat Earth Theory

Human Evolution

• Human Evolution
• Fossil Hominidae images.

• talkorigins.org
  • Fossil Hominids: The Evidence for Human Evolution
  • Hominid Species
  • Primate Transitional Fossils
  • Top 10 Signs Of Evolution In Modern Man

• The Tree of Life
  • Hominidae

• You can buy hominid skull casts.

• Common ancestors of all humans

Fantastic "Tree of Life" poster.
See larger. You can order it here.

ancientbrain.com      w2mind.org      humphrysfamilytree.com

On the Internet since 1987.      New 250 G VPS server.

Note: Links on this site to user-generated content like Wikipedia are highlighted in red as possibly unreliable. My view is that such links are highly useful but flawed.