Universal reproduction
Hi! I'm Tim Tyler, and this is a video about universal reproduction. Universal Darwinism can be conceptually divided into:
Reproduction is widely-recognised in the realm of living systems. It also happens in human culture - for example, photocopying is a form of reproduction. However, conventional wisdom is that reproduction is rare in the realm of inorganic matter. Supposedly it is only living systems that exhibit reproduction. Supposedly, inorganic systems lack the required forms of heredity and inheritance. However, it turns out that copying is ubiquitous in inorganic systems. Flames and crystals are often given as examples of inorganic systems that exhibit many of the properties of living systems. They certainly exhibit reproduction: parent flames divide into offspring flames and parent crystals fracture into offspring crystals. It is sometimes said that the offspring flames and crystals don't inherit the properties of their parents - and that the offspring flames depend on what they are burning - not on their parents. However, a little thought shows that copying and inheritance does take place. Flame offspring inherit their positions from their parents. Crystal offspring inherit their positions and their chemical constituents from their parents. It isn't just flames and crystals that are involved. Raindrops reproduce when they split into two - inheriting their position and their chemical makeup from their parents. Meteorites reproduce when they collide. Atoms reproduce during nuclear decay. Ripples reproduce as they spread out. Crack tips reproduce as they propagate. Islands reproduce as they are eroded. Reproduction and copying are extremely widespread processes. Reproduction can be found everywhere, just as natural selection is. Not every form of change involves copying. For example, motion is not the same thing as copying. Motion is where information moves from one place to another. By contrast, copying is where information starts off in one place and is subsequently propagated to many places. This is the basic idea of what copying is. Some would say that the copying I am talking about doesn't count as being "hereditary" since the term "heredity" is defined as being something that only occurs in living systems. The term "reproduction" is another controversial one. Some might classify two raindrops splitting as representing the production of a second raindrop - but not true reproduction, because the raindrops could be quite different in size and shape. When faced with the argument that the offspring raindrops inherit their parents' position and chemical constituents, they might say that that isn't enough to count as being true reproduction. However, controversies about the definition of the terms "heredity" and "reproduction" aside, the point being made here is that the copying, variation and selection that make up Darwinian evolutionary theory are all ubiquitous in nature. The last element of universal Darwinism is universal variation. However, universal variation is a pretty trivial and widely-accepted idea. Elementary particles are identical - but there isn't much else that is. For example, everyone knows that no two snowflakes are the same. Variation - like reproduction and selection - is found everywhere. Darwinian evolutionary theory had considerable impact on biology. Its impact in the social sciences is currently exploding. The theory of universal Darwinism provides much the same broad explanatory framework to chemistry, physics, mechanics, systems theory, materials science, geology, meteorology, oceanography, climatology, astronomy, computer science, mathematics and statistics - replacing a diverse collection of optimisation principles with a single unified framework. Given the current poor penetration of universal Darwinism, the Darwinian revolution seems to be ongoing - and looks set to last for quite a while yet. Enjoy,
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