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Status of this document
This document is not a strict scientific work.
Even if the author is not a professional in biology
the ideas presented in this article may contribute
to the understanding of evolution. Therefore I propose
a new class of articles, which I call a scientific speculation (SS).
The theory is SS if it:
- sticks to the general paradigma of science e.g. logic,
- is well formed, which allows strict science to judge
if it's correct or wrong
- it may lack some scientific knowlegde in the field it touches
or generally does not refere the proper literature.
SS may contribute to proper science supplying vivid ideas and
suggesting new syntheses. Yet the proper scienfic work
is indispensable to judge about the value of the concrete case.
- Status of this document
- The engine of evolution
- Why is the contemporary understanding insufficient
- The feedback model
- The natural spectrum
- Sudden sytheses
- Examples
- Paaring behaviour
- The hypothesis of god and the emergence of language
- Evolving planet - What comes next after humans ?
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- Apendices
- FAQ - frequently asked questions
- References
- Epilog
The engine of evolution
In this document I will present a new theory
explaining evolution (EbS), which overwhelms the
contemporary Theory of Evolution (ToE)
build on the work by C.Darwin.
The proposed extension seems to be trivial and even well known,
yet the new formulation is capable to answere questions
which ToE answers only partially or cannot answere at all.
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Why is the contemporary understanding insufficient
The contemporary standard (ToE) is claimed
to be insufficient in importand cases
and a vivid discussion still holds on.
Here I list phenomena which in my opinion are not explained by ToE,
which on the other hand the theory presented below is capable
to explain easier.
Paaring behaviour in biology
The diversity evolved around paaring behaviour seems to
be denied by the urge of efficiency stemming from natural selection.
No one knows for sure why a deer carries horns.
The choice made by the female proposed as an explanation
lacks a logical cause.
Also the homosexuality most probably belongs to this
cathegory
(1)
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The ToE suggests to explain
homosexuality with the benefit provided by the common upbringing
children. Yet this way it only explains friendship and not
the erotical charm. |
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Sudden jumps of evolution and long periods without change
The evolution of species shows long periods it time in which
species live well without significant change and abrupt changes
in which new species emerge. Changes in climat has been proposed
as a cause, but a true link has not been proved.
The origin of the DNA-machinery
The evolution due to ToE can take place when it's subject
(here a DNA-machinery) do exists. Yet why did it emerged at all ?
Appearing of some primary cycles seems not to be explained by
ToE well.
Social systems, the evolution of culture
The mechanism based on the natural selection
proposed by ToE should be applicable also to the evolution of a human
culture, of social and economical systems, etc., but ToE seems to fail
to explain these processes sufficently.
Evolution with no competition at all
There are examples, in which even without any
competiting counterpart a new complexity suddenly emerges.
Examples from the points above fall into this cathegory.
Other examples are erobering new environments were the pure
number of ressources excludes any selection pressure. Yet even
without competiting partners such systems do evolve.
These cases are traditionally explained with competition
between it's parts and thus their evolution. Yet this seems
to be somehow insufficient and neglecting the true cause of change.
As another example the hypothesis of Gaia
suggests that the complexity and the evolution of the biosphere
as a whole cannot be reduced to nor explained by it's parts.
Obviously the development takes place on earth as a whole
even without another competiting planet !
(2)
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It's important to stress that we neglect the developement
of individual species here. Why ? -
There is no mechanism explained by ToE with which
the evolution of individial species might cause the emergence
and the evolution of an embracing system,
like the biosphere as a whole. |
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The ToE surely touches these objections, but the solutions
proposed seem at least not to be stright,
efficient and very convincing. -
The feedback model
As stated above the nature shows tendency to
evolve towards more complexity even beyond the aplicability
of natural selection mechanism. How does to come about ?
In this article the natural feedback is proposed to be the
true engine of evolution. In living organisms the natural feedback
is realised by the generation thread successing and aplifying
functionalities stored in DNA. Parents bring up children,
which are similar to themselves.
This engine is supplied by the negative enthropy from the sun.
The natural selection, while still important is ascribed
only a shaping influence. It curves the individual species
out of the stream of generation cycles.
The natural selection is not a neccessary condition
for the evolution to work.
Without it the evolution simply fills all possibilities
spreading around so far as it reaches selections. -
The natural spectrum
To demonstrate how a feedback engine works let us consider
an electric amplifier fed back through the microphone by the
sound the loud speaker is producing. Obviously some high
tone emerges.
The control theory distingushes
between a positive and a negative feedback. The expotential
growth (explosion) is the consequence of the first one,
while the steady vibration is the consequence of the second.
Considering the whole biosphere as a feedback engine
is much more complex, but I'd like to suggest that
the spectrum of some distinct "tones" (called species)
with only small information transfere (gene transfere)
beteewn them must come about. Why is it so ?
Without giving the strict proof I'd suggest that in any
given initial distribution some "minima" and "maxima" appear,
which must further contract to individial species just
because they posess fixpoints
(3)
by definition.
The computational methods can in principle be applied to
judge about it what species spectrum will emerge.
Some astronomical data like the day-night rythmus,
the negative enthropy flux, etc. could be the bundary conditions.
Yet the true "mystery" appears when:
- different abstraction levels are considerd.
i.e. organisms consists one of the others
- the biosphere is astronomically stabile,
which waekens the outer influence (of these boundary conitions).
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Sudden sytheses
The feedback model easily explains sudden jumps in
past evolution of living organisms, which the paleonthology is suggesting.
The cause, why such jumps take place is closing of a new feedback
link, which naturally occurs suddenly and after a longer period
of building subsystems.
At this point it is worth to consider why and how the complexity
of subsystems contribute to a new system (new feedback link).
Truely the sudden emergence of a synthesizing system may
appear as a miracle if the former growth of it's part is disregarded.
Even then yet the human reasoning suggests some "purpose of
the evolution". The cause of this mistake will be described
deeper in chapter 2.2.
Examples
This chapter is providing examples,
in which EbS explanation seems to be more successfull than the ToE. -
Paaring behaviour
Let us demonstrate how the EbS explains the diversity
of paaring behaviour. The fertilisation poses obviously a bottleneck
in the generation cycle: A small amount of DNA is transfered which
has vast conseqences to the expression of the next cycle (new organism).
A huge pressure at least from the whole cycle concentrates at
this point. Yet a grown up male and female posess enought
ressources to realise and to amplify the behaviour which ever
appears. As a consequence nearly all possiblities are realised.
To carry horns is just not difficult enought to stand this preassure.
In a more pictorial metapher I like to compare this situation
with meandering of a river -
The hypothesis of god and the emergence of language
This chapter is hypothetical.
It describes a possible mechanism, which has not yet been proved.
Let us imagige a group of hominids as a social entiety,
bound together by exchanging social signals regarding
individuals like signals refering bringing up children,
hierachy in a group, common threats, etc.
Let us as a simplification imagige these signals regard
only social issues and are realised by some instance in
each individual psychic.
Let us imagine this system posesses enough complexity
to be one day (possibly by some collapse in the psychics)
used beneth its' proper applicability to describe issues
beyond social themes like the outside physical world.
It appears that threes, mountains and lakes aquire
personal features now. They are "he", "she" or "it" now !
Such hominids begun to hear, what mountains "are saying".
Obviously its' just a misuse of a social competence.
It is crucial to undestand that this false application
closes a strong feedback. What follows is an explosion of
language and a human culture. As a reminder of this
developement some "ghosts" stay back. People hear even
to still life the way the did to their parents.
It's no competition, nor natural selection, but only a pure
strong feedback which caused new complexity to evolve. -
Evolving planet - What comes next after humans ?
Let us consider the possible evolution of the biosphere
as a whole. It seems crucial to notice that an important link
of a feedback has been closed in the last decades with the
emergence of global control systems like the mass media
(4)
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In contemporary society
the information transfere realised by mass media might
be compared with a bottleneck described in the first section
of this chapter, which makes the common violence-metapher
more stressing. Ideologies like fasism and stalinism are examples. |
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the internet, the weather control, the global trade, etc.
This can be understood by humans as witnessing the birth
of some new global organism.
Yet an important element of it's self reference is still lacking.
This system does not know itself well enought to provide
stability. Without such self-knowledge it will decay by itself
while destroying our environment and possibly us too.
Unfortunately left alone this system seems aquiring the knowledge
of human sociology by testing. Why so ?
- Just because it's the next possible closing loop.
Still we have the possibility to influence this birth. How
can we do it ?
- It's crucial to identify possible selfreferences and to
actively construct them acording to stability demands. -
Apendices
FAQ - frequently asked questions
- What is wrong in saying that the natural selection
is the "engine of evolution" ?
It has a more metatphorical value, but taken literally it resambles
as if one says a car's motor consists of miles the car passes.
It does not explain where the "energy" comes from
aldow it suggests to explain it.
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