evolution – Page 12 – The Finch and Pea

Why People Believe Silly Things

In a paper in Science from October 2008, Jennifer Whitson and Adam Galinsky report that placing people in situations where they lack control increases the false perception of patterns because of a need to impose structure on even random events.

This study is very interesting because it helps us understand why we develop superstitions and the like, which are based on false pattern recognition. It does not, however, speculate on why some of those superstitions take hold and last (e.g., buildings without thirteenth floors) and some do not (e.g., my efforts to get my tee ball team to wear pink socks after a 3-4, 4RBI game and a laundry accident).

I, however, am not above some wild speculation. The defense of superstitions, quack medical treatments, etc. frequently goes like this: A medical treatment works or it does not work. If it works, people who use the treatment are more likely to live, people who don’t are more likely to die and the treatment keeps getting used. If it does not work, people who use the treatment are more likely to die, people who don’t are more likely to live and the treatment stops getting used. That makes intuitive sense. It sounds a lot like selection, and we like selection. Continue reading “Why People Believe Silly Things”

Post-apocalyptic Neanderthals

Just to reinforce my previous point that it’s natural to think of Neanderthals as living in a post-apocalyptic setting, here’s anthropologist Charles Finlayson:

By the time the classic Neanderthals emerged, during the last interglacial around 125,000 years ago, they were already a people doomed to extinction. Like the hippos, rhinos, and elephants of the eurasian forest, the Neanderthals were a population of living dead, existing on borrowed time.

The Humans Who Went Extinct, p. 116

Finlayson argues that this is so because Neanderthals developed to be ambush hunters, relying on woodlands for close range hunting. Because of climate change after 125,000 years ago, the woodland areas that the Neanderthals exploited best gave way to drier, treeless terrain. Although the Neanderthals survived for almost another 100,000 years, this was the beginning of the end. The apocalypse had already happened, and Neanderthals were playing out the aftermath.

There is more to say on this… stay tuned.

Texas finally does something right regarding education

Texas may be screwing over their public school children’s education (and, via the textbook market, our kids’ too), but at least Texas is doing something right: they won’t permit a creationist institute to hand out graduate degrees in science education.

Continue reading “Texas finally does something right regarding education”

Evolution is Intelligent Design: Neo-Functionalization

As is my wont, I like to highlight examples of art and design that either demonstrate or are inspired by evolutionary theory. While some of the elements of

by Stefano A (CC 2.0) — Nacho Carbonell Interpretative Portrait?

Nacho Carbonell‘s “Evolution” collection could be interpreted as an expression of abiogenesis, the emergence of biological entities from non-biological chemistry is NOT technically a part of evolutionary theory. Instead, I choose to view these works as an expression of neo-functionalization.

Neo-functionalization describes the process by which a gene stumbles upon a new function that is distinct from its original function. If that new function is beneficial, selection can very rapidly entrench that function in the genetic code.

In much the same way, Nacho Carbonell’s furniture starts as one “non-furniture” shape and discovers a new function, which finds discrete form rapidly.

"Evolution" - The Bench by Nacho Carbonell — 'evolution' - the bench, 2010 paper mâché, iron structure 105 x 200 x 95 cm each piece is signed edition from galleria rossana orlandi, milan

Lovely. This bench would certainly look better in my garden than a few kilobases of coding DNA.

Do Guys Dream of Electric Playmates (Repost)

This is a repost of an article originally published on 24 February 2009 here in response to a Wired Magazine article that is, once again, making the rounds.

My apologies to Horselover Fat for the title, but what is a boy to do when confronted with Katharine Gammon’s “Infoporn: Today’s Playmates Are More Like Anime Figures Than Real Humans” in Wired Magazine:

Oh, Playboy, why do you want your “readers” to lust after androids? That’s the only explanation we can think of for the proportions of your lovely ladybots.

If Hef is secretly invested in Battlestar Galactica, then the argument that Playboy has been gradually programming American males to “lust after androids” for the past fifty years makes sense.
Battlestar Galactica publicity still
The argument that Playboy drives the public perception of the ideal female form, as opposed to responding to the preferences of their readers (you won’t get any judgemental scare quotes from me) may just be a reflection of Gammon’s socioeconomic philosophy or writing style. It also does not involve fun graphs. Dealing with the specific claim of the article, that Playmates represent progressively more extreme and less healthy body shapes, does.