Rereading Darwin

#1

Post by pg » Sun, Jan 22, 2012, 6:17 PM UTC

Re: Rereading Darwin

#2

Post by billswift » Sun, Jan 22, 2012, 7:05 PM UTC

Good article. If you want more, rather than reading Darwin, I suggest Dennett's Darwin's Dangerous Idea, which gives a broader, more modern view of the importance of evolution. Especially of "variation and selection", the core ideas of Darwin, and without a lot of frequently irrelevant, for the general reader, biological details.

Re: Rereading Darwin

#3

Post by westicle » Sun, Jan 22, 2012, 7:59 PM UTC

Whenever I read about Darwin I'm impressed by his commitment to a pretty disruptive idea in the face of substantial criticism. Also interesting that he (over)worked himself to the detriment of his health and relationships but left behind a pretty amazing legacy.

Not surprised pg is interested in him as a subject!

Re: Rereading Darwin

#4

Post by __true » Sun, Jan 22, 2012, 10:20 PM UTC

"Still, when I recently reread Origin..."

It's surprising to me he had to read it twice to realise the implication he cites in that paragraph.

By changing the timescale you can affect remarkable changes in human perception.

What is "time"?

Is it just an idea? One that varies from person to person? Or is it something else?

Re: Rereading Darwin

#5

Post by bootload » Sun, Jan 22, 2012, 10:26 PM UTC

The essence of the Enlightenment is shown where Bishop Ussher looks to scriptures to confirm while Darwin, Kelvin et alia, observe.

Re: Rereading Darwin

#6

Post by wging » Mon, Jan 23, 2012, 5:56 AM UTC

>Both our life spans and our five senses are inadequate to the task of comprehension: The most powerful mechanism of organic change lies well beyond our everyday experience.

This is mostly true, but there are some cool things (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._coli_long-term_evolution_exp...) that have been done. (You might recall that Lenski's team saw E. coli evolve the ability to eat citrate: http://scienceblogs.com/loom/2008/06/02/a_new_step_in_evolut...)