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Alife Digest Number 112
Alife Digest, Number 112
Sunday, October 3rd 1993
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ Artificial Life Distribution List ~
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~ List maintainer: Greg Werner ~
~ Artificial Life Research Group, UCLA ~
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Today's Topics:
Calendar of alife related events
references needed
Simulating Autopoiesis
Complexity International Journal
Autogen v0.1 autocatalysis simulator available
Journal of Ideas - Volume 2 #2/3 Contents
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Calendar of alife related events
*****************************************************************************
Molecular Nanotechnology Oct 14-16, 199 v109
Neural Networks and Telecommunications, Princeton, NJ Oct 18-20,1993 v100
Fluctuations and Order, Los Alamos, NM Sept 9-12, 1993 v102
Robot Games, Glasgow Scotland Sept 23-25, 1993 v109
Neural Information Processing Systems, Denver, CO Nov 29-Dec 2, 1993 v98
Vancouver Cognitive Science Conference, BC, Canada Feb 11-12, 1994 v111
Third Conf on Evolutionary Programming, San Diego, CA Feb 24-25, 1994 v103
AAAI Spring Symposium, Stanford CA Mar 21-23, 14 v110
Cybernetics and Systems Research, Vienna April 5-8, 1994 v101,103
Integrating Knowledge and Neural Heuristics May 9-10, 1994 v111
Intnl Conf Knowledge Rep and Reasoning, Bonn, Germany May 24-27, 1994 v101
IEEE Computational Intelligence, Lake Buena Vista FL Jun 26-Jul 2, 1994 v106
Alife IV, Cambridge MA July 6-8, 1994 v108
Simulation of Adaptive Behavior, Brighton, UK Aug 8-12, 1994 v101
>From Perception to Action, Lausanne, Switzerland Sept 7-9, 1994 v111
Parallel Problem Solving in Nature, Jerusalem, Israel Oct 9-14, 1994 v102
Congress on Medical Informatics, Sao Paulo, Brazil Sept 9-14, 1995 v91
*****************************************************************************
------------------------------
From: Thomas S.Ray <ray@hip.atr.co.jp>
Date: Tue, 21 Sep 93 15:53:24 JST
Subject: references needed
I am presently writing a review article for the first issue of
the new journal Artificial Life. In this article I would like to
refer to work that has been done with Tierra or Tierra-like systems.
If you have any manuscript of this sort, published or not, please
send the reference to me by email. I would also like to receive
an abstract by email, and eventually a copy of the manuscript by
regular mail. Please send references and hopefully abstracts to:
ray@hip.atr.co.jp
Subsequently you may send copies of manuscripts to:
Tom Ray
ATR HIP Lab
2-2 Hikaridai
Seika-cho Soraku-gun
Kyoto 619-02 Japan
------------------------------
Date: Fri Sep 17 09:50:30 1993
From: mcmullinb@vax1.dcu.ie (Barry McMullin)
Subject: Simulating Autopoiesis
The basic principles of computer simulation of Autopiesis were, of
course, first elaborated in the seminal paper:
@ARTICLE{
Varela:Autopoiesis,
AUTHOR = "Francisco J. Varela and Humberto R. Maturana and
R. Uribe",
TITLE = "Autopoiesis: The Organization of Living Systems,
its Characterization and a Model",
JOURNAL = "BioSystems",
YEAR = 1974,
VOLUME = 5,
PAGES = "187--196"
}
I am currently considering a project to develop a ``general purpose''
simulation package for Autopoietic systems, to be placed in the public
domain. This should, of course, support the specific class of
algorithms originally presented in the paper above as a special case;
but I would also intend that it would allow variations along certain
lines, as well as providing a range of instrumentation and monitoring
utilities.
The point of this note is to ask for help in specifying this project.
Any comments would be welcome, but I'm particularly interesting in
responses to the following:
o Has it already been done?
I am aware of the APL-Autopoiesis package developed by Milan
Zeleny, though I do not know exactly what it comprised, or if it is
still available---can anyone provide an update? In any case, I do
not think that package would satisfy my own objectives for a
variety of reasons.
I have already received assistence from Francois Jullien, who has
recently re-implemented the original algorithm. Has anyone else out
there got such programs (any language, any platform) that they
could share?
o Should it be done?
Does anyone have any specific experiments or investigations they
would like to carry out for which such a simulator would be useful?
What features would you like included? What specific extensions of
the original class of algorithms would you like to be have
supported? What kind of user interaction, instrumentation, off-line
analysis, etc. would you need?
o What languages/platforms should be targetted?
My default inclination is to target the X-windows environment,
programming, of course, in ANSI C. A PC-version (under MS-Windows)
might be an option also, though further down my list. Comments?
Also, being still an engineer at heart, I wonder if anyone thinks it
worthwhile to design a form of hardware accelerator for this class
of simulation (conceptually like the CAM cellular automaton
machines, but tailored for the needs of autopoietic simulation
instead)?
I will, of course, notify progress on these issues back to the list,
Thanks,
Barry.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1993 16:59:59 +1000
From: David G Green <David.Green@anu.edu.au>
Subject: Complexity International
************************
COMPLEXITY INTERNATIONAL
************************
A Hypermedia Journal of Complex Systems Research
================================================
Introduction and Call for Papers
********************************
Papers of original, previously unpublished work in the field of
complex systems are invitedfor the new electronic journal, COMPLEXITY
INTERNATIONAL, ISSN 1320-0682. Complexity International is a refereed
journal for scientific papers dealing with any area of complex systems
research.
Being accessible through Internet, Complexity International has
several advantages overexisting paper journals:
o for authors it provides rapid publication, and instant world-wide
distribution of their work;
o subscription is free to anyone with access to the Internet;
o all papers will be available on-line in hypermedia format (via World
Wide Web), allowing rapid browsing and thematic searching.
o papers may exploit the advantages of multi-media, including
graphics, animation or audio, and of hypertext, including live
links to related electronic information.
Papers may either be of conventional form or else written as hypertext
documents conforming to the World Wide Web standards. The accepted
papers will be available via the Complex Systems Hypermedia Service at
the Australian National University.
AIMS AND SCOPE
++++++++++++++
The theme of the journal is the field of complex systems, the
generation of complex behaviour from the interaction of multiple
parallel processes. Relevant topics include (but are not restricted
to): artificial life, cellular automata, chaos theory, control theory,
evolutionary programming, fractals, genetic algorithms, information
systems, neural networks, non-linear dynamics, and parallel
computation. Papers dealing with applications of these topics (e.g.
to biology, economics, epidemiology, sociology) are also encouraged.
CATEGORIES OF CONTRIBUTION
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Several types of article are acceptable. See the Instructions for Authors for further
details.
o Original Papers (max. 5000 words);
o Reviews (max. 10,000 words);
o News and Ideas (max. 3000 words);
o Algorithms;
o Technical Notes (max. 2000 words).
The intention of the journal is to publish only material of high
quality. The refereeing process will have the same rigour as any
conventional journal. Original papers and news items will receive at
least three international referee reports. Proposals for reviews will
be assessed on the basis of a detailed outline submitted to referees.
Technical notes will be assessed by two referees, but such a
submission may include working software as well as multi-media
presentation material.
EDITORS
+++++++
Executive Editor : Terry Bossomaier Australian National University,Canberra
Co-editor : David Green Australian National University, Canberra
Editorial Address: The Editors
Complexity International
Computer Science Laboratory
Research School of Physical Sciences & Engineering
The Australian National University
Canberra 0200 AUSTRALIA
Email: ci-editor@life.anu.edu.au
ADVISORY BOARD
++++++++++++++
o Ah Chung Tsoi (University of Queensland)
o Roger Bradbury (National Resource Information Centre, Canberra)
o Richard Brent (Australian National University, Canberra)
o Terry Caelli (University of Melbourne)
o Kit Dampney (Macquarie University)
o Geoffrey Fox (University of Syracuse)
o Walter Freeman (University of California, Berkeley)
o Paulien Hogeweg (University of Utrecht)
o Doug Seeley (University of South Australia)
ACCEPTANCE AND PUBLICATION PROCEDURE
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Papers should be submitted by email to the editors in an approved
format. See the Instructions for Authors for details. The target
will be for a paper to be refereed within the required time and
requiring no amendments to be published in the journal within six
weeks of submission.
Newly accepted papers are added to the current issue of the journal
immediately. Current and past volumes and issues will be accessible
at all times via the Journal Contents Page.
Initially, Complexity International will publish one volume per year,
but the frequency of issues will depend on the rate of contributions.
When each issue of the journal is complete, a hypertext table of
contents, plus abstracts, will be mailed to subscribers. A list of
the contents will also be announced on computer news networks,
including the Complex Systems Open Forum. Readers should use the
Forum for general discussion of issues arising from papers published
in the journal.
FORMAT
++++++
Papers will ultimately appear in HTML format (Hypertext Markup
Language) for distribution via World Wide Web, to which links may be
included, but initially alternative submission formats are acceptable.
Detailed instructions for authors, including format options, and a
technical report describing the selection of these alternatives, may
be obtained from the journal network server (see below).
COPYRIGHT POLICY
++++++++++++++++
Anyone with access to Internet may subscribe to Complexity
International free of charge. By subscribing to the journal, readers
agree to acknowledge both authors and the journal for any use they
make of material published in Complexity International. As a
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++++++
Any browser for WWW can be used to access papers in the journal. See
below for network addresses. Subscribers will receive a hypertext
table of contents for each issue. Some of the available browsers
include ...
o UNIX/X11 systems
o Xmosaic (ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu)
o tkWWW (export.lcs.mit.edu) - includes WYSIWYG HTML editor
o Viola (info.cern.ch)
o DOS Windows
o Cello (fatty.law.cornell.edu)
o WinMosaic (ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu) - not yet available
o Macintosh
o MacMosaic (ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu) - alpha release
o MacWWW (info.cern.ch)
Many of these, and various other browsers, are available from CERN
(info.cern.ch). Some of the above browsers and various utilities
(e.g. converters for HTML to and from LaTeX and RTF to HTML) are
available by anonymous FTP from the journal server (life.anu.edu.au)
in the directory /pub/netkit.
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Submission of manuscripts
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Editorial correspondance
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Your message should include the lines
CI subscription: subscribe ci "your name"
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e.g. subscribe ci Joe Bloggs
The Complex Systems Open Forum provides a venue for general
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To send comments to the Open Forum, use the address:
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ANONYMOUS FTP
command line ftp life.anu.edu.au
login name anonymous
password your electronic mail address
path /pub/complex_systems/ci
GOPHER PROTOCOL
Name=Complexity International
Host=life.anu.edu.au
Type=1
Port=70
Path=1/complex_systems/ci
WORLD WIDE WEB PROTOCOL
http://life.anu.edu.au:80/ci/ci.html
For information about the above services contact david.green@anu.edu.au See also the
following documents ...
o Complexity International - Contents
http://life.anu.edu.au:80/ci/ci.html
o Complexity International - Guide for Authors
http://life.anu.edu.au:80/ci/ci_author.html
o Complex Systems Hypermedia Information
http://life.anu.edu.au:80/complex_systems/complex.html
o ANU Bioinformatics Hypermedia Service
http://life.anu.edu.au:80/
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 27 Sep 1993 11:06:49 +0100
From: George Kampis <gk@cfnext.physchem.chemie.uni-tuebingen.de>
Subject: Autogen v0.1 autocatalysis simulator available
Autogen (v0.1) simulation program available
===========================================
I.
A simulation program for modeling chemical self-organization and the
emergence of autocatalyis, called Autogen (v0.1), has been uploaded to the
Alife archives. It allows the user to build his/her own random network and
study its properties.
Author: George Kampis
University of Tubingen, Germany
ELTE University, Budapest, Hungary
It runs on a PC with VGA, and has a color graphics front-end. It requires
1 or 2 MB-s to install (depending on what you want to get).
Instructions for downloading and installation:
>ftp ftp.cognet.ucla.edu (or ftp 128.97.50.19)
ftp> cd pub/alife/public (or maybe later pub/alife/software/ibm ?)
ftp> binary
ftp> get autogen.zip (ca. 750 kB-s!)
ftp> quit
(An alternative site is cogsci.elte.hu, in cogsci/alife).
To install, use pkunzip (available at all major ftp sites, for instance,
at wuarchive.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4) in or near the directory
systems/ibmpc/msdos/archivers - or just ask archie for pkzip (unzip will be in
the same directory).
Have fun! ------ george.
II.
Here follows the README file of the package:
Autogen v0.1 Date: 09/24/93
by George Kampis
University of Tubingen, Germany
ELTE University, Hungary
(kampis@ludens.elte.hu)
I. The Theory: From Homogeneous Systems to Autocatalytic Units
This program simulates the self-organizing behavior of a random catalytic
chemical network of abstract molecules, starting from homogeneous initial
conditions. It consists of a quadratic field where a point corresponds
to a given type of molecule, and a third dimension, usually represented as
color (but see II.(b) iii), corresponds to the amount of the given molecule.
Molecules can exert catalytic activity towards one or more of their
"neighbours" (defined by the minimum of a city block or Manhattan metric over
the field), and can develop or "forget" their catalytic properties during the
simulated process, according to simple rules. New catalytic activity can be
interpreted as an effect attributed to the emergence of new substrates and/or
the changing composition of the system.
Substrate recognition is not modelled in the present form of the system.
Any molecule can serve as the substrate for any catalytic reaction (a solution
not preferred by nature on grounds of stochiometry, among other things). As a
result, we observe a materials transfer from regions of low catalytic activity
to regions of high catalytic activity, formed spontaneously. That leads to
various types of interesting behavior.
The detailed rules can be best defined in the form of a set of operators that
act on the field:
Produce produce new components catalytically
Consume use components as substrates
NewArrow assign new catalytic properties
Put produce new components randomly (a sort of noise)
Remove remove components randomly
Delete garbage collection: delete catalytic activity of
killed components
Display well, display!
Each of the pairs Produce-Consume and Put-Remove conserves the overall amount
of molecules in the system. Consume, Remove and Put use a uniform random
integer decomposition algorithm to allocate molecules to their operation.
A simulation means the execution, in a given arbibrary order, of the full set
of operators in every time step.
In a wide range of initial conditions a stable autocatalytic limit organization
is found to emerge. This illustrates the selective capability of systems
with self-modifying properties.
A simpler early simulation along similar lines was published in:
Csanyi, V. and Kampis, G. 1987: A Computer Model of Autogenesis,
Kybernetes 16, 169-181.
A publication (with color plates) about the current system is:
Kampis, G. 1993: Computing Beyond the Machine Metaphor,
in: (Paton, R. ed.): Computing With Biological Metaphors,
Chapman and Hall, London, to appear.
II. The Program
(a) This distribution contains the following files:
2120 Sep 24 16:50 GNOME.doc - the GNOME project
7988 Sep 24 16:50 README - this file
13755 Sep 24 16:50 anim.exe - player for flic animation
78389 Sep 24 16:50 autogen.exe - main simulation pgm
289848 Sep 24 16:50 autogen.fli - a 3D animated run
49644 Sep 24 16:50 curgen.exe - for alpha terminal only
72596 Sep 24 16:50 f0100.zip - archived results
115389 Sep 24 16:50 f0101.zip - archived results
135344 Sep 24 16:50 f0503.zip - archived results
8464 Sep 24 16:50 flispeed.exe - set fli animation speed
19793 Sep 24 19:10 pkunzip.exe - dearchiver
45749 Sep 24 16:50 vgaplay.exe - player for the "f" files
101087 Sep 24 19:17 3Dray.zip - 3D raytracing snapshot, big!
You need 1-2 MB room on the HD, depending on how much you want to install.
(b) There are three ways of viewing autogenesis to develop:
i - run your own simulation
Say "autogen" at the DOS prompt. Needs VGA or better! Yet you will
be annoyed to see that the biggest simulation-field you can get is
30x30 (60x60 on the screen). Autogen is no video game - it uses
combinatorial random algorithms, several cellular automata buffers,
and floating-poit arithmetics on large arrays. This v0.1 uses real
mode only.
Command line options: autogen <prob1> <prob2> <stepno>
Prob1 is the probability by which at time zero a molecule is assigned
a
catalytic activity towards any particular neighbor.
Prob2 is the probability that a molecule will develop a new catalytic
activity (per one time step).
Stepno is the number of simulation steps to be performed.
Defaults are 0.5, 0.3, and 100, in the above order.
What do you see: you see no connections (catalytic links) but molecule
numbers, represented as color.
Another possibility for running a simulation is to say "curgen"
at the DOS prompt. Command line optinons are identicalas before.
This gives you a 12x25 field that fills out the alphanumeric screen,
with catalytic links represented as arrovs and arrow-like characters,
and double links (elementary cross-catalytic loops) as H and =,
respectively. In this form, the dynamics of interactiuons can be also
studied.
ii - play records of selected 100x100 simulations
Currently, records of three test runs are supplied. Computation time
for these was well in the order of a dozen minutes on a 17 MIPS
(6,5 MFLOP) machine.
First you have to dearchive a few files. Say "pkunzip f*".
This will produce f0100.bin, f0101.bin, f0503.bin.
You need about 1 MB room on your HD.
Then say "vgaplay file.bin", where "file" is one of these:
f0100 = (prob1=0.1, prob2=0, stepno=20)
f0101 = (prob1=0.1, prob2=0.1, stepno=40)
f0503 = (prob1=0.5, prob2=0.3, stepno=50)
Gives a nice view. Its a little slow - I did not want to
progam my SVGA card directly. Next time (or never).
iii - play a 3D animation
Say "anim autogen.fli". It offers a 'D view of a height field
generated on the basis of simulations data. The vertical co-ordinate
is the amount of a given type of molecule.
If it is too slow/fast for you,
just say "flispeed autogen.fli /S#", where # is a positive integer.
1 gives maximal speed, but dont try that. Good choices are between
10 and 20.
If you want to have an impression of how this looks *in the original*,
(on a UNIX workstation), view the file 3Dray.tiff. Its a 24-bit
picture, most most viewers and most VGA and SVGA cards use "dirty
tricks" to produce a picture optically quite close to truecolor.
Why this cant be animated on the PC, is the size of the files.
After decompressing, this one is alone 800 kB big!
III. To Do
There exist versions of the Autogen system with
- prohibited double links
- a variety of further initial conditions
- built-in precursors (small autocatalytic loops at time zero)
- a pipette to drop molecules and subsystems at runtime
- larger simulation fields
- slightly different rules
You get more info about these in the publications mentioned in I.
PD versions and DOS ports are pending.
Still further versions are thinkable, such as more than two-dimensional
reaction fields, or reaction fields without a geometry. Alternatively, the
introduction of a spatial component is also entertained, and a still more
advanced idea, that of multiple-level simulations is already in the progress.
IV. Further Research
(a) An Exercise
Write a program that automatically updates a README file such that the
length of this README file in the directory listing (inlcuded in that very
README file) will be correct. Just as in this file. (No tricky solutions pls,
such as all README-s having the same length perforce, and the like.)
(b) An Open-Ended Problem
Elaborate the topics of autocatalysis, self-reprodcution, and self-reference.
What do they have to do with each other?
------------------------------
Subject: Journal of Ideas - Volume 2 #2/3 Contents
Journal of Ideas - ISSN 1049-6335 is published quarterly by
the Institute for Memetic Research, POB 16327, Panama City,
Florida 32406-1327.
[For more information contact E. Moritz at moritz@well.sf.ca.us]
John Locke
Abstract: In 1690 John Locke published 'An essay concerning human
understanding'. The essay was pivotal in establishing western scientific
thought. While philosophy and the sciences have improved our
understanding of cognitive processes, many of Locke's insights concerning
the nature of ideas are still valid and need to be brought back into the
forefront of any science of ideas. Applications of Locke's foundational
theories are as relevant today as they were hundreds of years ago,
especially to the areas of artificial intelligence and expert systems.
Captured here are parts of the `Essay ...' which deal with faculties
and operation of the mind, basic concepts of 'ideas' and activities on
ideas. Locke's concept of simple ideas, combination of simple ideas into
complex ideas, and aspects of retention of ideas are suggestive of the
present track of memetics. Keywords: ideas, memory, mind, perception,
cognition, meme, philosophy, epistemology, artificial intelligence,
expert systems.
ENERGY FLOW AND ENTROPY PRODUCTION
IN BIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS
Brian A. Maurer
Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah 84602
Daniel R. Brooks
University of Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A1, Canada
Abstract. Biological systems persist because they process energy and
accumulate excesses that are usable in growth and maintenance. There are
two general types of energy transformations that occur in biological
systems. Heat generating transformations result in lost energy.
Conservative energy transformations produce energy that can be stored and
used later to do work. Different types of entropy can be associated with
each of these types of energetic processes. Heat generating energy
transformations occur when energy and entropy flow in opposite
directions. Conservative energy transformations are characterized by
entropy and energy flowing in the same direction. Thus the system has
conflicting tendencies: heat generating processes move it towards
unstructured states and conservative processes move it towards complex
structured states. Both tendencies increase the entropy of the system.
These ideas are examined from the viewpoint of energy flow through
organisms and populations of organisms. As entropy and energy flow
through such systems at different rates, structure accumulates at any
given biological level, and that structure is constrained by energy and
entropy flows at other levels of organization. Rate gradients in entropy
production lead to different types of constraint systems governing
hierarchically related entities and to the generation of historical
constraints at any given level of organization.
ON THE ROAD TO CYBERNETIC IMMORTALITY:
A Report on the First Principia Cybernetica Workshop
Elan Moritz
The Institute for Memetic Research, Panama City, Florida
Abstract. Principia Cybernetica is an attempt to unify cybernetic
philosophy based on harmonizing systems theory and cybernetics. The
ontology recognizes meta-system transitions which lead to higher level of
organization and evolution. One of the emergent aspects of meta-system
transitions, when human society is viewed as a whole, is the human
"superbeing" or "metabeing" characterized [among other attributes] by
"cybernetic immortality". The metabeing hypothesized by this
meta-system transition may share characteristics of a posited homo
trans-sapiens. In the context of cybernetic immortality, what survives is
cybernetic organization [which may be embodied in a variety of media
including organic tissues or electronic networks, rather than strictly
biological media]. The practical aspects of the first workshop of the
Principia Cybernetica Project, and its main philosophical themes, were
concerned with means with which to amplify the spontaneous development of
knowledge. Idea memes were discussed as some of the fundamental building
blocks which when subjected to mutations and recombinations lead to
knowledge amplification. A report is given on papers presented at the
workshop. Keywords: systems, cybernetics, meme, immortality, computers,
ontology, emergence, epistemology, ethics, evolution, knowledge.
THE ORIGINS OF THE CAPACITY FOR CULTURE
Jerome H. Barkow
Dalhousie University, Halifax, N.S. B3H 1T2, Canada
Abstract. Recent work on the capacity for culture by Tooby and DeVore
(1987), Parker (1987), and myself (1989) suggests that a multistage
scenario is needed with special attention to sexual selection and to the
self-predation hypothesis. Just as the evolutionist often examines
morphology with a view to generating hypotheses about past selection
pressures, it is fruitful to examine aspects of human psychology for
compatibility with evolutionary scenarios. The ethnocentrism syndrome,
for example, is compatible with autopredation (within species conflict
and culling) approach, while alleged transcultural gender differences in
sexuality would, if supported, argue for a strong role for sexual
selection in the evolution of cultural capacity. Keywords: evolution,
capacity for culture, evolutionary psychology, vertically integrated
explanation, autopredation, origins of culture.
FOLK PSYCHOLOGY, FREE WILL AND EVOLUTION
Jerome H. Barkow
Abstract. Theorists concerned with the evolution of human behavior often
unwittingly strive to "explain" attributes that owe more to our
unexamined folk psychology than to biology. Our folk psychology is
Cartesian with self-awareness as a sort of homunculus in control of the
body. It is more likely that awareness is the organ of impression
management and has no executive powers. Evolutionists need to explain
the ordering and sequencing of behavior rather than the rise of an
executive self. Keywords: evolution, free will, Descartes, self, folk
psychology.
Editors Editorial Advisory Board
-------- ------------------------
Elan Moritz R. Wilburn Clouse, Vanderbilt U.
Patricia S. Smith Peter Kiss, Sentar Corp.,
Huntsville
The Institute for Memetic Research Terry M. Mikiten, U. Texas Health
Science Center, San Antonio
Matthew Witten, U. Texas System,
Austin
manuscripts and information requests should be directed to
Elan Moritz (E-mail: moritz@well.sf.ca.us)
** AIMS & SCOPE ** The Journal of Ideas is an archival (print)
forum dedicated to the dissemination of research results and
discussion relating to the formation and spread of ideas in human and
machine systems. Areas covered include: 1) dynamical and structural
theories of idea and meme generation, mutation, combination, spread
and dissolution, 2) knowledge generation, representation, and storage
in living and artificial systems, 3) cognition and self-awareness in
living and artificial systems 4) generalized theories of life,
evolution, and ecology in biological, mechanical and electronic
systems, 5) classical and quantum mechanical theories of brain/mind
interactions, 6) human and machine creativity and, 7) results of
experiments in the preceding areas. The Journal publishes research
communications, critical reviews, short notes, book reviews, and
relevant historical material. The Journal is geared to a diverse
audience coming from classical disciplines such as physics, biology,
evolutionary and ecological studies, psychology, anthropology,
computer science, mathematics, and philosophy.
------------------------------
End of ALife Digest
*******************
