Philosophy
In the game of evolution, the winners are those who successfully manage to survive and reproduce, and one of the best ways to do the latter is sexually. If you simply made perfect copies of yourself, there wouldn't be enough genetic diversity in your offspring to be protected against newly evolving pressures. Sexual reproduction provides some of the shuffling necessary for the evolution of successful adaptations by providing some genetic diversity. Of course, if you're human, you kind of have the gist of how sexual reproduction takes place.
But how would you manage to have sex if you were a plant and were consigned for life to remain in the same place? Well, Jonathan Drori is here in this fascinating TEDTalk Presentation to explain and show some of the incredible adaptations that plants have evolved in order to make sure that their seeds pay their evolutionary dividends. As you'll see, many of their strategies involve getting other species (insects, birds and even humans) to unwittingly behave in ways that benefit the genetic interests of the plants.
And the plants, of course, don't care whether they achieve their ends through voluntary cooperation, bribery, force, deceit or brainwashing...
And if you want to see Darwin's moth, check it out
- Debunking The "naturalistic" Argument Against Gay Marriage, Part I
As John points out over at The NonSequitur"Arguments against gay marriage tend to fall into one of two groups: (1) the slippery slope group, which alleges that if gay marriage is permitted, all sorts of outrageous consequences will follow (such as the...
- Second Law Silliness
Been working on the evolutionary biology track in my forthcoming philosophy of science textbook, Methods and Models, and in fairly quick order came across two instances of the argument against evolution based on entropy. It's probably worth making...
- What Darwin Never Knew
Darwin's idea of evolution through natural and sexual selection has been dubbed by many as perhaps the greatest single idea anyone has ever come up with. In a remarkable stroke of genius, Chuck was able to bridge the gap between the world of inanimate...
- Susan Blackmore - Memes And 'temes'
Think about the amount of corn produced in the world. From our point of view, we might think that there is so much of it because it serves our needs. From the point of view of corn, however, it might think that it only helps us because we are a convenient...
- A Darwin Essay
The New York Times Op-Ed Contributor, Olivia Judson, offers her perspective on Charles Darwin. "The Origin of Darwin" by Olivia Judson February 12th, 2009 The New York Times London MY fellow primates, 200 years ago today, Charles Darwin was born. Please...
Philosophy
Jonathan Drori - The Beautiful Tricks of Flowers
And the plants, of course, don't care whether they achieve their ends through voluntary cooperation, bribery, force, deceit or brainwashing...
And if you want to see Darwin's moth, check it out
- Debunking The "naturalistic" Argument Against Gay Marriage, Part I
As John points out over at The NonSequitur"Arguments against gay marriage tend to fall into one of two groups: (1) the slippery slope group, which alleges that if gay marriage is permitted, all sorts of outrageous consequences will follow (such as the...
- Second Law Silliness
Been working on the evolutionary biology track in my forthcoming philosophy of science textbook, Methods and Models, and in fairly quick order came across two instances of the argument against evolution based on entropy. It's probably worth making...
- What Darwin Never Knew
Darwin's idea of evolution through natural and sexual selection has been dubbed by many as perhaps the greatest single idea anyone has ever come up with. In a remarkable stroke of genius, Chuck was able to bridge the gap between the world of inanimate...
- Susan Blackmore - Memes And 'temes'
Think about the amount of corn produced in the world. From our point of view, we might think that there is so much of it because it serves our needs. From the point of view of corn, however, it might think that it only helps us because we are a convenient...
- A Darwin Essay
The New York Times Op-Ed Contributor, Olivia Judson, offers her perspective on Charles Darwin. "The Origin of Darwin" by Olivia Judson February 12th, 2009 The New York Times London MY fellow primates, 200 years ago today, Charles Darwin was born. Please...