Evolution quotes

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David_Deutsch

Gigantic Computation

“Think of all our knowledge-generating processes, our whole culture and civilization, and all the thought processes in the minds of every individual, and indeed the entire evolving biosphere as well, as being a gigantic computation. The whole thing is executing a self-motivated, self-generating computer program. More specifically it is, as I have mentioned, a virtual-reality program in the process of rendering, with ever-increasing accuracy, the whole of existence.”
Keywords: Knowledge_quotes Culture_quotes Civilization_quotes Thinking_quotes Process_quotes Mind_quotes Evolution_quotes Biosphere_quotes Computed_Reality_quotes Computation_quotes Virtual_Reality_quotes Program_quotes Rendering_quotes Accuracy_quotes Existence_quotes Increase_quotes Generate_quotes Whole_quotes Computer_quotes Gigantic_quotes

Peter_Drucker

Systems Management

“Organizationally what is required - and evolving - is systems management.”
  • Source: Peter F. Drucker, Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, New York: Harper & Row, 1973. p. 761.
Keywords: Organization_quotes Requirements_quotes Evolution_quotes System_quotes Management_quotes

Albert_Einstein

Intuition and Inspiration

“I believe in intuition and inspiration. ... At times I feel certain I am right while not knowing the reason. When the eclipse of 1919 confirmed my intuition, I was not in the least surprised. In fact I would have been astonished had it turned out otherwise. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. It is, strictly speaking, a real factor in scientific research.”
  • Source: Cosmic Religion : With Other Opinions and Aphorisms (1931) by Albert Einstein, p. 97; also in Transformation : Arts, Communication, Environment (1950) by Harry Holtzman, p. 138.
Keywords: Intuition_quotes Inspiration_quotes Certainty_quotes Imagination_quotes Creativity_quotes Knowledge_quotes Science_quotes Research_quotes Reason_quotes Eclipse_quotes Confirm_quotes Surprise_quotes Astonish_quotes Important_quotes Limit_quotes Embrace_quotes World_quotes Stimulate_quotes Progress_quotes Birth_quotes Evolution_quotes Factor_quotes

Ronald_Fisher

Fisher's Theorem of Natural Selection

“The rate of increase in the mean fitness of any organism at any time ascribable to natural selection acting through changes in gene frequencies is exactly equal to its genetic variance in fitness at that time”
  • Source: Ronald Aylmer Fisher in the book The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection, published in 1930 by Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Keywords: Evolution_quotes Fitness_quotes Organism_Quotes Natural_Selection_quotes Genetics_quotes Gene_quotes Theorem_quotes Rate_quotes Increase_quotes Mean_quotes Ascribe_quotes Act_quotes Change_quotes Frequency_quotes Exact_quotes Variance_quotes Time_quotes

Donald_Hoffman

The Interface

“The purpose of a desktop interface is not to show you the ‘truth’ of the computer — where ‘truth,’ in this metaphor, refers to circuits, voltages, and layers of software. Rather, the purpose of an interface is to hide the ‘truth’ and to show simple graphics that help you perform useful tasks such as crafting emails and editing photos. If you had to toggle voltages to craft an email, your friends would never hear from you. That is what evolution has done. It has endowed us with senses that hide the truth and display the simple icons we need to survive long enough to raise offspring. Space, as you perceive it when you look around, is just your desktop — a 3D desktop. Apples, snakes, and other physical objects are simply icons in your 3D desktop.”
  • Source: Donald Hoffman, writing in his book “The Case Against Reality: Why Evolution Hid the Truth from Our Eyes”. Published by W. W. Norton, New York, NY, in 2019. ISBN 978-0393254693. Preface, page 7.
Keywords: Purpose_quotes Desktop_quotes Interface_quotes Show_quotes Truth_quotes Computer_quotes Metaphor_quotes Refer_quotes Circuit_quotes Voltage_quotes Layer_quotes Software_quotes Hide_quotes Simple_quotes Graphic_quotes Perform_quotes Task_quotes Craft_quotes Email_quotes Edit_quotes Photo_quotes Toggle_quotes Friends_quotes Hear_quotes Evolution_quotes Endow_quotes Sense_quotes Display_quotes Icon_quotes Need_quotes Survive_quotes Raise_quotes Offspring_quotes Space_quotes Perception_quotes Look_quotes 3D_quotes Apple_quotes Snake_quotes Physical_quotes Object_quotes

Understanding Evolution

“Understanding the evolution of perception is a critical step toward understanding who we are, and the provenance of our consciousness.”
  • Source: Donald Hoffman in his book “The Case Against Reality: Why Evolution Hid the Truth from Our Eyes”. Published by W. W. Norton, New York, NY, in 2019. ISBN 978-0393254693. Chapter 1, page 39.
Keywords: Understand_quotes Evolution_quotes Perception_quotes Critical_quotes Step_quotes Provenance_quotes Consciousness_quotes Identity_quotes

Arthur_Koestler

Evolution of the Brain

“It is entirely unprecedented that evolution should provide a species with an organ which it does not know how to use... But the evolution of man’s brain has so wildly overshot man’s immediate needs that he is still breathlessly catching up with its unexploited, unexplored possibilities.”
  • Source: Arthur Koestler, In The Ghost in the Machine (1967), p. 298-299.
  • Note: This is often seen paraphrased as “The evolution of the brain not only overshot the needs of prehistoric man, it is the only example of evolution providing a species with an organ which it does not know how to use”.
Keywords: Evolution_quotes Species_quotes Organ_quotes Brain_quotes Need_quotes Possibility_quotes Potential_quotes Unprecedent_quotes Know_quotes Wild_quotes Overshot_quotes Breathless_quotes Catch_quotes Unexploited_quotes Unexplored_quotes

Kenneth_W_Kolence

Large System Evolution

“Large systems must evolve, and cannot be produced all at one time. You must have an initial small core system that works really well.”
Keywords: Large_quotes System_quotes Evolution_quotes Production_quotes Incremental_quotes Concurrent_quotes Time_quotes Small_quotes Core_quotes Quality_quotes Initial_quotes Work_quotes Well_quotes

John_von_Neumann

Gradual Development of Theory

“What is important is the gradual development of a theory, based on a careful analysis of the ... facts. ... Its first applications are necessarily to elementary problems where the result has never been in doubt and no theory is actually required. At this early stage the application serves to corroborate the theory. The next stage develops when the theory is applied to somewhat more complicated situations in which it may already lead to a certain extent beyond the obvious and familiar. Here theory and application corroborate each other mutually. Beyond lies the field of real success: genuine prediction by theory. It is well known that all mathematized sciences have gone through these successive stages of evolution.”
  • Source: John von Neumann, 'Formulation of the Economic Problem' in Theory of Games and Economic Behavior (1964), 8. Reprinted in John Von Neumann, F. Bródy (ed.) and Tibor Vámos (ed.), The Neumann Compendium (2000), 416.
Keywords: Importance_quotes Gradual_quotes Development_quotes Theory_quotes Careful_quotes Analysis_quotes Fact_quotes Application_quotes Elementary_quotes Problem_quotes Result_quotes Doubt_quotes Requirements_quotes Early_quotes Stage_quotes Service_quotes Corroborate_quotes Complexity_quotes Situation_quotes Lead_quotes Obvious_quotes Familiar_quotes Mutual_quotes Success_quotes Genuine_quotes Prediction_quotes Mathematics_quotes Science_quotes Evolution_quotes Beyond_quotes

Richard_Pascale

Efficiency and Variation

“Corporations, in the name of efficiency, suppress variation by 'getting all the ducks in line'. To optimize productivity, they evolve highly refined and internally consistent operating systems. Payoff results - as long as the music lasts. But in the face of nontraditional competitors or major environmental discontinuities, all that streamlining and reengineering limits diversity, suppresses self-organization by those closest to the disruptive change, and curtails a bottom-up emergent response to cope more effectively... Nothing fails like success. Over-adaptive organizations become inflexible. Disruptive change leaves them as helpless as a beached whale.”
  • Source: Richard T. Pascale, Jerry Sternin, Monique Sternin (2010). “The Power of Positive Deviance: How Unlikely Innovators Solve the World's Toughest Problems”, p.190, Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press
Keywords: Efficiency_quotes Corporation_quotes Suppress_quotes Variability_quotes Duck_quotes Optimization_quotes Productivity_quotes Evolution_quotes Refine_quotes Consistency_quotes Operating_System_quotes Pay_quotes Result_quotes Music_quotes Tradition_quotes Competition_quotes Major_quotes Environment_quotes Discontinuity_quotes Streamline_quotes Reengineering_quotes Engineering_quotes Limitation_quotes Diversity_quotes Self-Organization_quotes Organization_quotes Disruption_quotes Change_quotes Helpless_quotes Whale_quotes Line_quotes System_quotes Nontraditional_quotes Bottom-up_quotes Emergent_quotes Response_quotes Cope_quotes Effective_quotes Innovation_quotes Failure_quotes Success_quotes Over-adaptive_quotes Inflexible_quotes Beached_quotes

Pearl_and_Mackenzie

Super Evolutionary Speedup

“Over millions of years, eagles and owls have evolved truly amazing eyesight — yet they’ve never devised eyeglasses, microscopes, telescopes, or night-vision goggles. Humans have produced these miracles in a matter of centuries. I call this phenomenon the ‘super-evolutionary speedup.’”
  • Source: Judea Pearl and Dana Mackenzie in “The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect”. Published by Basic Books of New York, NY in 2018. Chapter 1, page 25. ISBN 978-0465097616 (ebook).
Keywords: Million_quotes Year_quotes Eagle_quotes Owl_quotes Evolve_quotes Eyesight_quotes Eyeglass_quotes Microscope_quotes Telescope_quotes Night_quotes Vision_quotes Goggle_quotes Human_quotes Produce_quotes Miracle_quotes Century_quotes Phenomenon_quotes Super_quotes Evolution_quotes Speedup_quotes

Ability to Engineer

“Evolution has endowed us with the ability to engineer our lives, a gift she has not bestowed on eagles and owls.”
  • Source: Judea Pearl and Dana Mackenzie in “The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect”. Published by Basic Books of New York, NY in 2018. Chapter 1, page 25. ISBN 978-0465097616 (ebook).
Keywords: Evolution_quotes Endow_quotes Ability_quotes Gift_quotes Bestow_quotes Eagle_quotes Owl_quotes

Alan_Perlis

Optimization

“Optimization hinders evolution.”
Keywords: Optimization_quotes Hinder_quotes Evolution_quotes

Steven_Pinker

Neurons to Consciousness

“None of us has a brain that can actually put us in touch with reality unaided with truth. I've just shown you a bunch of gadgetry that responds to things that are essential to our survival, things that prevent us from falling off cliffs and bumping into trees. But they don't actually correspond to any clear description of the world as it is. So we have, for example, circuitry that responds to the edges rather than the physical distribution of light, because edges are important, that's where objects leave off and their backgrounds begin. Moreover, they can be fooled, as I did with each one of you. That since our neural circuitry does consist of a mechanism, not a pipeline to the truth or a window onto objective reality. That is naïve realism we know is false because there are illusions. You can't just trust your senses. That means we need some way of augmenting the faculties that nature gave us to make our beliefs as accurate as possible. Which of course is why the early modern philosophers made such a big deal of visual illusions. They said you can't just open your eyes and see the world as it is. Look at all these illusions. So what we do, what gives some of us confidence that our beliefs are objectively true is that they are part of an institutional infrastructure of testing and criticism and logic and determining which hypotheses withstand criticism and attempts at refutation. Devising exotic arrangements of reality to reflect the way reality is put together, namely experiments. Thanks to this huge network of minds, each one of them making up for deficits of all the others, we like to think that we have a collective grasp on truth that none of us individually can have. But of course, it's always fallible. The religious beliefs I think were actually pretty reasonable hypotheses in earlier states of our collective knowledge. Even Richard Dawkins said that before Darwin he probably would have been a creationist because the cosmic engineer was the only available explanation for the obvious adaptive complexity of living things. I would add that prior to the advent of modern neuroscience I probably would have believed in souls because there was no better explanation for phenomena such as that people respond intelligently to their environments. When you dream some part of you is up and about the world while your body is in bed the whole time. That seems like there must be some part of you that can leave your body. When a person suddenly dies some kind of animating force no longer seems to be animating the body that was there just a few minutes ago. So the soul hypothesis is not a stupid or irrational belief, nor is creationism if it's the best that you have. Now, of course, we can do better. But doing better in part depends not just on this cumulative weight of evidence and argument. But because few of us can actually reconstruct the scientific observations that justify the theory of natural selection or the theory of neural networks, all of us, at least a little bit, take it on faith in the following sense; that there is a community that you trust enough because when they have been challenged to defend their beliefs they can connect them to reality. They have shown that it isn't magic. That they have given reason to trust them because they've convinced you that they're the mores of their culture, of their scientific culture, designed so that they will find true things and weed out false things. If you don't have a degree of solidarity or trust, if you think that scientists are all in cahoots with big corporations or are trying to tear down all faith and values and meaning and you simply refuse to follow through the very long chain of deduction that connects the claims to the experiments, then you'll naturally reject it just because it's not your tribe. For you and me scientists are our tribe and we're apt to give them some credibility, indeed some credulousness, knowing that if ever challenged it would be repaid. But unless you trace that through it can be all too easy to reject the conclusions of science, and indeed a number of studies have shown that contrary to the common belief that people believe in falsehoods, such as that vaccines cause autism or that humans were created five thousand years ago or that the burning of fossil fuels has no effect on global temperatures, it turns out that people with those beliefs that we have every reason to believe are false are no more scientifically naïve on average than people that have beliefs that are scientifically justified. You give a test on evolution to a bunch of people who believe in evolution, give it to a bunch of creationists, there's not much difference in how well they score. In fact, often they are equal. Likewise, the typical grasp of climate science among someone who signs on to the scientific consensus is not much better than the adamant deniers. That kind of dashes the hope that simply by increasing the quality of science education you will lead people to more accurate beliefs. There, in addition, has to be a dissociation of who you think are the good guys and who are the bad guys from who has the best claims to truth. That's what it depends on.”
Keywords: Accuracy_quotes Adament_quotes Adaptability_quotes Addition_quotes Advent_quotes Aid_quotes Animate_quotes Argue_quotes Arrangement_quotes Attempt_quotes Augment_quotes Autism_quotes Availability_quotes Background_quotes Bad_quotes Bed_quotes Belief_quotes Best_quotes Big_quotes Body_quotes Brain_quotes Bump_quotes Bunch_quotes Burn_quotes Cahoot_quotes Chain_quotes Challenge_quotes Circuit_quotes Claim_quotes Clear_quotes Cliff_quotes Climate_quotes Collective_quotes Complexity_quotes Common_quotes Community_quotes Conclusion_quotes Confidence_quotes Connection_quotes Consensus_quotes Consist_quotes Contrary_quotes Convince_quotes Cooperation_quotes Corporation_quotes Correspondence_quotes Cosmic_quotes Creationism_quotes Credibility_quotes Criticism_quotes Culture_quotes Cumulative_quotes Dash_quotes Deal_quotes Death_quotes Deception_quotes Deduction_quotes Defence_quotes Deficit_quotes Degree_quotes Deny_quotes Dependence_quotes Description_quotes Design_quotes Determine_quotes Devise_quotes Differences_quotes Dissociation_quotes Distribution_quotes Dreaming_quotes Early_quotes Easy_quotes Edge_quotes Education_quotes Effect_quotes Engineer_quotes Environment_quotes Essential_quotes Evidence_quotes Evolution_quotes Exotic_quotes Experiment_quotes Explanation_quotes Eye_quotes Faculty_quotes Faith_quotes Fall_quotes Fallible_quotes False_quotes Few_quotes Find_quotes Follow_quotes Fool_quotes Force_quotes Fossil_quotes Fuel_quotes Gadget_quotes Global_quotes Good_quotes Grasp_quotes Guy_quotes Huge_quotes Hypothesis_quotes Illusion_quotes Importance_quotes Increasing_quotes Individual_quotes Infrastructure_quotes Institution_quotes Intelligence_quotes Irrational_quotes Justification_quotes Knowledge_quotes Leave_quotes Life_quotes Light_quotes Logic_quotes Long_quotes Magic_quotes Meaning_quotes Mechanism_quotes Mind_quotes Modern_quotes Moral_quotes Naïve_quotes Nature_quotes Natural_Selection_quotes Network_quotes Neural_quotes Neuroscience_quotes Object_quotes Objectivity_quotes Observation_quotes Obvious_quotes Part_quotes People_quotes Perception_quotes Phenomena_quotes Philosophy_quotes Physical_quotes Pipeline_quotes Possibility_quotes Prehistoric_quotes Prevent_quotes Reality_quotes Reason_quotes Reconstruct_quotes Reflection_quotes Refuse_quotes Refutation_quotes Rejection_quotes Religion_quotes Repay_quotes Respond_quotes Science_quotes Scientist_quotes Score_quotes Seem_quotes Selection_quotes Sense_quotes Show_quotes Sight_quotes Solidarity_quotes Soul_quotes State_quotes Study_quotes Stupidity_quotes Survival_quotes Tear_quotes Temperature_quotes Testing_quotes Theory_quotes Thinking_quotes Time_quotes Touch_quotes Trace_quotes Tree_quotes Tribal_quotes Trust_quotes Truth_quotes Try_quotes Typical_quotes Unaided_quotes Vaccine_quotes Value_quotes Visual_quotes Weed_quotes Weight_quotes Whole_quotes Window_quotes Withstand_quotes World_quotes

Computational Mind

“The mind is a system of organs of computation, designed by natural selection to solve the kinds of problems our ancestors faced in their foraging way of life, in particular, understanding and outmaneuvering objects, animals, plants, and other people.”
  • Source: Steven Pinker (1997). How the Mind Works. New York, NY: W. W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-06973-0; eISBN 978-0-393-06973-0. Chapter 1 Section Reverse-Engineering the Psyche.
Keywords: Mind_quotes System_quotes Computation_quotes Organ_quotes Design_quotes Natural_Selection_quotes Solution_quotes Kind_quotes Problem_quotes Ancestor_quotes Forage_qoutes Way_quotes Life_quotes Understanding_quotes Maneuver_quotes Object_quotes Evolution_quotes Animal_quotes Plant_quotes People_quotes Prehistoric_quotes

Rupert_Sheldrake

Evolutionary Randomness

“In neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory randomness plays a central role through the chance mutations of genes, which are quantum events. With different chance events, evolution would happen differently.”
  • Source: Rupert Sheldrake. The book “Science Set Free: 10 Paths to New Discovery”, Prologue, page 15. Published in 2012 by Crown Publishing, New York, NY. Kindle Edition. ISBN: 978-0-7704-3671-1.
Keywords: Neo-Darwinism_quotes Darwinism_quotes Theory_quotes Random_quotes Play_quotes Central_quotes Role_quotes Chance_quotes Mutation_quotes Gene_quotes Quantum_quotes Event_quotes Different_quotes Evolution_quotes

E_O_Wilson

Selection Pressures of Hunter-Gatherer Existence

“The selection pressures of hunter-gatherer existence have persisted for over 99 percent of human evolution.”
  • Source: Chapter 4. On Human Nature (1978). On Human Nature; written by Edward O. Wilson; first edition; published in 1978 by Cambridge University Press; ISBN 0674634411.
Keywords: Selection_quotes Pressure_quotes Hunter_quotes Gatherer_quotes Existence_quotes Persist_quotes Over_quotes Percent_quotes Human_quotes Evolution_quotes

Biological Evolution Outrun By Cultural Change

“Because it is... far slower than Lamarckian evolution, biological evolution is always quickly outrun by cultural change.”
  • Source: Chapter 4. On Human Nature (1978). On Human Nature; written by Edward O. Wilson; first edition; published in 1978 by Cambridge University Press; ISBN 0674634411.
Keywords: Slow_quotes Lamarckian_quotes Evolution_quotes Biology_quotes Quick_quotes Outrun_quotes Culture_quotes Change_quotes

Cultural Evolution Fast Biological Evolution Slow

“Cultural evolution is Lamarckian and very fast, whereas biological evolution is Darwinian and usually very slow.”
  • Source: Chapter 4. On Human Nature (1978). On Human Nature; written by Edward O. Wilson; first edition; published in 1978 by Cambridge University Press; ISBN 0674634411.
Keywords: Culture_quotes Evolution_quotes Lamarckian_quotes Fast_quotes Biology_quotes Darwinian_quotes Slow_quotes

Knowledge is the Ultimate Emancipator

“Pure knowledge is the ultimate emancipator. It equalizes people and sovereign states, erodes the archaic barriers of superstition and promises to lift the trajectory of cultural evolution. But I do not believe that it can change the ground rules of human behavior or alter the main course of history's predictable trajectory.”
  • Source: Chapter 4 (Emergence). On Human Nature (1978). On Human Nature; written by Edward O. Wilson; first edition; published in 1978 by Cambridge University Press; ISBN 0674634411.
Keywords: Pure_quotes Knowledge_quotes Ultimate_quotes Emancipator_quotes Equalize_quotes People_quotes Sovereign_quotes State_quotes Erode_quotes Archaic_quotes Barrier_quotes Change_quotes Ground_quotes Rule_quotes Human_quotes Behavior_quotes Superstition_quotes Promise_quotes Lift_quotes Trajectory_quotes Culture_quotes Evolution_quotes Believe_quotes Alter_quotes Main_quotes Course_quotes History_quotes Predict_quotes

Shoshana_Zuboff

Panoptic Power

“This rendering of panoptic power reflects an important evolution of the original concept. It rests on a new collectivism in which ‘the many' view themselves and each views ‘the other.' Horizontal visibility is created even as vertical visibility is intensified. The model is less one of Big Brother than of a workplace in which each member is explicitly empowered as his or her fellow worker's keeper. Instead of a single omniscient overseer, this panopticon relies upon shared custodianship of data that reflect mutually enacted behavior. This new collectivism is an important antidote to the unilateral use of panoptic power, but it is not a trouble-free ideal. Horizontal transparency breeds new human dilemmas as well.”
  • Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 351. ISBN:0465032125.
Keywords: Panopticon_quotes Power_quotes Importance_quotes Evolution_quotes Originality_quotes Conception_quotes Collectivism_quotes Other_quotes Tribalism_quotes Visibility_quotes Horizontal_quotes Vertical_quotes Model_quotes Surveillance_quotes Workplace_quotes Empowerment_quotes Omniscience_quotes Informant_quotes Supervision_quotes Custodian_quotes Data_quotes Behavior_quotes Antidote_quotes Unilateral_quotes Whistle_Blower_quotes Trouble_quotes Transparency_quotes Humanity_quotes Dilemma_quotes Render_quotes Reflect_quotes Many_quotes View_quotes Create_quotes Intensify_quotes Big_quotes Brother_quotes Member_quotes Explicit_quotes Keeper_quotes Overseer_quotes Rely_quotes Share_quotes Mutual_quotes Enact_quotes Collective_quotes Free_quotes
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