Ervin Laszlo has spun an interesting fable – a way of looking at reality that utilizes an information field to tie together the universe. It is a theory that weaves the fabric of existence from “in-formation”, essentially the instructions to build atoms, suns, dna, life and consciousness. His theory could explain everything.

The problem is that Laszlo has not connected his theory to actual experimental results. He refers to the scientific works of others that peripherally touch on the points he is trying to make, and then makes sweeping generalizations that are not supported by those experimental results. A scientist takes experimental knowledge and builds a theory that fits the facts, he then tests the theory against new experiments to test the validity of the theory.

It is clear that what has happened here is that Ervin Laszlo has built a theory from his knowledge of a number of scientific principles and then sought out related studies and drawn his own conclusions from them. This builds a large body of citations that appear to support the theory, but actually neither support nor disprove it.
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River out of Eden is Richard Dawkins’ clear, readable and well researched explanation of basic Evolution and Natural Selection. This entirely accessible explanation dispels many confusions and erroneous views of the current scientific understanding of the “Origin of Species”. It includes a comprehensive (through 1995) bibliography for those who want to continue their reading. Dawkins is a firebrand for the Brights athiest-naturalist movement, and many religious folks would cast anything he writes out as the word of the Satan. I picked up my copy for a quarter at the local Salvation Army thrift shop, and probably would not have gotten it at a regular bookstore because of Dawkins’ reputation as a strident, evangelical athiest. I am very glad I picked it up.
Well, Dawkins does make a case that if an “Old One” holding the keys to life exists, he either could care less about his creations, or reallly loves to play dice. Dawkins’ conclusions in this area do not overburden this book with anti-religious philosophy – he sticks to the facts and exposes how we now understand the way that species vary and optimize for their unique environments. Upon careful reading of River out of Eden, the mechanisms of the DNA evolutionary process become not only clear, but obvious. The Utility Function for evolution and natural selection is simply optimizing the prevalence of the particular DNA patterns of an organism in the universe. (more…)

We have an endangered species list identifying organisms that are about to wink out of existence like the dodo and the passenger pigeon. Some of these should are listed because they are emotionally important to humans – like the bald eagle and the koala bear. Some folks bemoan the protection of the snail darter and the northern spotted owl when it interferes with an economic activity.

These lists are of limited value because they include only the organisms we know exist. The organisms we know of represent only a tiny fraction of those in the world, and hence only a tiny few of those in danger of extinction, so putting a few on a list from those few we know might make us feel better, but it is really myopic.

There is a good case for preserving biodiversity in all ecologies, as each organism fills an important place in the system. Arguments are made that minor players in an area (such as low populations of a specific creature) are not important because they don’t seriously effect the balance of the ecology. On a day to day basis, these organisms seem insignificant – the proportion of the photosynthesis, grazing, predation, parasitism, etc. in the ecology is just not significant enough to make a difference.

Recent research in the Census of Marine Microbes, part of the project Census of Marine Life, done by Mitchell Sogin at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, shows that in each sample of the microscopic life from a submarine ecology station there are always a few dominant microbe species in each sample but thousands more species that are present, but rare. Each ecological sampling point or station has an entirely new suite of rare microbes. (more…)

Consilience brings together information from different disciplines to generate a far greater knowledge than the sum of the parts. Edward O. Wilson‘s bestseller explains just how that occurs. For those of us who have already come to that conclusion, the book starts kind of slow. He carefully and thoughtfully builds the case for a unity of knowledge, that for folks who already understand, is plodding. He does this so the rest of the world can follow the case he builds. The source of the data is meticulously laid out in the work itself and in extensive final notes.

For those who don’t see his point, or had not thought about consilience and its multiplicative effect on knowledge, he hammers the point home that information without context is not very useful, and putting it in the context of the total knowledge of the human race is how it gets value. If you do not yet see how science and art, or biology and chemistry are cut from the same cloth, this book will change your life.

Wilson’s underlying goal with Consilience is to prove and sell the world view that the Human Race is a race for survival: That humans are consuming the world’s resources at a rate which will shortly cause cataclysmic destruction. Our numbers and wastefulness are destroying the ecology in which humans have evolved. The gains of consilience can permit the dramatic adjustments our footprint on the earth so that it will remain habitable. (more…)

Pythagoras showed that the golden ratio, phi ( φ) – 1.61814, used as the relationship of parts in a structure is amazingly pleasing. Physical dimensions in this relationship produce an order that is compelling and beautiful. The relationship of the successive chambers in a nautilus, the relative length of the tip of a finger to the tip to first knuckle, then to the length of the first two segments to the entire finger, then the hand, the relationship of successive vein length segments in a leaf all merge to the limit of φ . People know that symmetry is a characteristic of beauty, as you can see in my portrait, The Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci. φ is the “constant” of proportional symmetry in nature. Recognizing this constant and its derivation can bring order to a practical assessment of what makes things beautiful. (more…)

Throughout all of history, folks have tried to determine what it is that makes a person have consciousness. What is it that makes the light illuminating our mind with awareness of being?

No one has found a physical “thing” in a person that could be called a soul. In spite of the images in Harry Potter, Ghost and other works, no structure, vapor or essence has been identified as the soul or consciousness. I suggest that the reason is that the soul is an action, not a thing. In I am a Strange Loop, Doug Hofstadter makes a convincing case that human consciousness consists of a self referential strange loop.

I don’t think Doug completed his thesis. He left the nature of the strange loop as simply “something” within the cranium. The definition of a loop can be anything from a complete electrical circuit, anything round or oval that is closed or nearly closed, a curl or coil, or finally, a computer program sequence that repetitively executes a series of instructions. If one looks at a strange loop as an algorithm that recursively refers to both new input and itself, a clearer picture of what might be consciousness arises.

DesCartes said, cogito ergo sum (“I think, therefore I am”). He should have said “I think, and this makes me be”. Thinking is consciousness – while we are awake and aware the strange loop is the execution of thought. It depends on all the inputs from our senses, the state of our body and all the memories and associations or “tokens” we have developed through life.

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I waited with great anticipation for the release of Doug Hofstadter‘s new book, I am a Strange Loop. Doug has expanded on a central theme of his landmark book, Godel, Escher, Bach (known as GEB) to explore and expand his concept of the strange loop, and its implications on human consciousness. I call him Doug in this review because he has written both an enlightening and personal book that makes me feel that I have known him for years, in spite of only reading two of his books.
The book meets all my expectations and hopes. It is not to be approached without effort, as Doug makes reading a mental exercise – illustrating his points on self referential loopiness by wildly alternating between straight exposition, and restating others’ illustrative passages in barely recognizable forms. This strategy shows additional meanings by mapping classic themes to new symbols. He also masquerades new parables as quirky stories using a vocabulary of anagrams of the main points and names in his thesis.

These antics can fatigue your mind, especially because he seldom lets you know what he is up to until you are several pages along. You then have to go back to pick up the fourteen points that you have missed along the way. (more…)

Humans have the dubious distinction of being host to three separate species of louse. The head louse, Pediculus humanus, or its direct ancestor has been with us for the longest ride, probably for the entire 12-13 millions of years that primates and head lice have existed. The body louse (also known as the clothing louse) and the pubic louse that prefers that coarser hair for its home developed or hopped aboard later.
The New York Times reported that David L Reed of the University of Florida has been poking around with the DNA of human lice and the lice of other primates and monkeys, and has found some intriguing clues to human development. He has specialized in using the clues in the DNA of host specific parasites to mark the changes in the host behavior or development. (more…)

Do you remember the best teacher you ever had? Dick Feynman is better! Six easy pieces are six of his twenty two lectures from Caltech’s freshman lecture series.
If you don’t care for math, but really would like to UNDERSTAND classical and basic quantum physics this is the book that will do it. Feynman develops each subject, with aplomb.

The first chapter or “piece” transistions from the description of molecules, to their Brownian motion, then relating that to heat energy in gases, to pressure in a cylinder, to diffusion, to state changes (solid, liquid, gas) in such a smooth and logical progression that you preface each new insight with: “Of course”

Many people think that physics is hard, and that it takes a lot of work and math to understand the principles by which the universe works. Accessing this knowledge the normal way is tough. Feynman gives you the easiest way to see the way creation works.

Quantum theory – the world of atoms and subatomic particles is never seen by us in normal life. Unfortunately the subatomic world does not work like the Newtonian physics of bouncing balls, friction and smooth curves.

Nels Bohr’s original picture of atoms with electrons spinning in planetary orbits is not how it is. The Bohr model looks at the atom as though it follows Copernican rules of planetary motion – but the electron energies are quantized or discrete, so they cannot be shown as nice clear orbits, but more like a cloud where the Bohr orbits trace the average paths. Few, not even Carl Sagan could easily explain the experimental model that has probability clouds, where you can know either the location or the velocity of a particle, but not both, or the fact that an electron must be thought of as a particle, and a wave. (This reminds me of Chevy Chase and Jane Curtain with “Shimmer – its a Dessert Topping and a Floor Wax!”)

Quantum theory is just not very intuitive. Feynman, in his sixth piece makes the only clear, understandable, and accurate explanation of the quantum behavior of particles (or waves) that I have ever seen. He lets you get from – “You may say that, but I won’t believe it” to: “Oh, so that’s how it works”. Everyone who wants to get the most out of Vorpal.us and cannot say that they feel they understand physics, especially quantum physics should read this book. (nb: Required Reading)

A new breed of fundamentalist atheists, led by renowned evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and neuroscientist Sam Harris are attacking religion as not only irrelevant but evil. Their thesis is that not only that religion fails to stand up to the test of science, but that it is the root of human suffering. In their view, religion should be shown to be just an obsession.
Religious fundamentalists counter by denying the facts of science. The Kansas State Board of Education‘s comic adoption of education standards requiring teaching “intelligent design” shows how religious folks are willing to believe anything, even that the Emperor’s clothes exist.

The athiest’s position is only furthered by the actions of other religious fundamentalists who advocate violent defense of their religious stand. (more…)