tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22093933.post2005332210918956248..comments2024-03-28T09:41:15.454-05:00Comments on Deric's MindBlog: Seeing ourselves as eddies in the stream of entropyDeric Bowndshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16617204535017208765noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22093933.post-56752329976007126832009-10-26T09:09:41.381-05:002009-10-26T09:09:41.381-05:00Charles Darwin has rarely been bigger. In the mids...Charles Darwin has rarely been bigger. In the midst of the 200th anniversary of his birth and the 150th anniversary of the Origin, there is little doubt as to the continued relevance of his ideas regarding evolution and natural selection. Yet a lot has changed since the original publication of the Origin; the advances made in the mid-20th century towards a modern synthesis connected Mendelian principles of inheritance to Darwin’s work thus bolstering the field of evolutionary biology. In light of such developments, the question remains: do Darwin’s ideas, in their original form, have any worth today? Can one still derive some sort of value from reading the Origin outside of pure historical value? I would argue yes. Darwin’s On the Origin of Species is a beautifully written and curiosity-packed piece of work; despite the aging of some of the ideas, just reading about how Darwin develops his careful argument for the validity of evolution is worth the price of admission.<br /><a href="http://www.atriskyouthprograms.com/" rel="nofollow">Programs for at Risk Youths</a>Sabrina Lopez | Programs For At Risk Youthshttp://www.atriskyouthprograms.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22093933.post-79776926546093708112009-01-27T15:47:00.000-06:002009-01-27T15:47:00.000-06:00Hi Deric,As you say Ridley's piece is engaging, bu...Hi Deric,<BR/><BR/>As you say Ridley's piece is engaging, but more as a study of a deeply conflicted writer than as an opinion about Darwin. <BR/><BR/>This may be his only (veiled) public statement about the failure of Northern Rock, which he seems to attribute to "weather-like vagaries of mathematical chaos". He has railed for years with a political world view polarized to libertarian (government is a parasite, marxists are everywhere, global warming is bunk, etc). Now he has erased his chairmanship from his CV, and (with hereditary wealth intact) returned to his career as a science writer.<BR/><BR/>While his biological writing is excellent he must reconcile his extreme ideology for "bottom up" evolution and economics with what he sees as "dirigiste" control. He has blinded himself to the stabilizing control of hierarchy in any biological system, including the economy.Rick Thomashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11996647548366503742noreply@blogger.com