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« The Headline That Didn't Pay Off | Main | Go Ahead And Oppose Miers, You Perverts » October 20, 2005
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Posted by Dorkafork *** ID proponent admits his definition of “theory” was so broad it would also include astrology. Also admits today will be a good day for financial dealings, suggests calling up an old friend. *** Digital organisms shown to evolve into irreducibly complex forms according to an article from the Feb. '05 Discover Magazine. UPDATE: You can download the program the researchers used here. *** Spanish arrest warrant issued for 3 US soldiers. A journalist who witnessed the incident believes the warrant is politically motivated. *** "Mr. Foreman, has the jury reached a YAAAH! ... excuse me, didn't mean to jump like that." *** Who could possibly be against choking the chicken? (The chicken in question.) *** At the recent Million Man March, Wyclef Jean said "Father Saddam cries in prison" (apparently as part of an outreach effort to centrist voters). I'm unsure whether he meant it to be similar to "Mother Sheehan" or if he has just been reading old Hussein era propaganda. Posted by Dorkafork at October 20, 2005 01:28 PM | TrackBack (0) Trackback PingsTrackBack URL for this entry: CommentsI find it humorous that an article where a researcher programmed the system to favor certain activities is held up as proof that irreducably complex systems can evolve. The key here is that the researcher provided a system which selected for the adaptations he was looking for. In the real world adaptations that did not produce a meaningful result (even though when combined with other adaptations it would be beneficial) would not necessarily be selected for and might even be selected against. So the researcher created a system intended to show that something could happen by random generation and then "helped" it along by being an artificial selective force. Now he was trying to disprove ID? We can do better than this. Posted by: jim at October 20, 2005 02:42 PM I liked this segment in the jury duty story: Actress Bo Derek, also a local resident, received at least two jury summonses and served on one panel without incident. Because chances were fifty/fifty she'd show up naked, smoking a joint. "C'mon, judge, we've all seen 10! Strike this woman from the jury!" Posted by: Hubris at October 20, 2005 02:47 PM "Air America, the liberal talk network carried on WWRC-AM (1260), went from bad to nonexistent. After WWRC recorded a mere fraction of a rating point in the spring with syndicated shows from the likes of lefty talkers Al Franken, Janeane Garofalo and Stephanie Miller, Arbitron couldn't detect a measurable listenership for the station this time around." Posted by: jeff at October 20, 2005 03:03 PM Michael Jackson moved to Bahrain? You'd think UAE would be more attractive, what with all the vulnerable ex-camel jockeys hanging around. Think of the sleep-over potential! Posted by: Matt Moore at October 20, 2005 04:18 PM You might find this interesting: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051021/ap_on_he_me/diabetes_pill_risks Study: New Diabetes Pill Deemed Dangerous - A new diabetes pill that was headed for government approval has been linked to deaths, heart attacks and strokes, a medical journal reported Thursday in an analysis it said was rushed online to head off a Vioxx-like fiasco ----- I've been skeptical of these drugs for a while. I think really effective treatments are a ways off yet. Posted by: TallDave at October 20, 2005 09:14 PM This too: http://www.boston.com/news/globe/health_science/articles/2004/08/24/cinnamon_joins_cholesterol_battle/ A small study completed last year on the possible health benefits of cinnamon was "very exciting and promising," according to Dr. Andrew Greenberg, director of the obesity metabolism laboratory at Tufts University, who is so intrigued he has begun studying it himself. The 40-day study, of 60 people in Pakistan with Type 2 diabetes, found that one gram a day of cinnamon -- one-fourth of a teaspoon twice daily -- significantly lowered the subjects' blood sugar, triglycerides (fatty acids in the blood), LDL (or "bad") cholesterol, and total cholesterol. Posted by: TallDave at October 20, 2005 09:16 PM One of the reasons I posted that irreducable experiment link is that I haven't decided if I agree completely with their take on the experiment (though I'm leaning towards it). As you pointed out, the rewards part of the program is the weak point, but I don't think it's quite as you think. "In the real world adaptations that did not produce a meaningful result (even though when combined with other adaptations it would be beneficial) would not necessarily be selected for and might even be selected against." And that could very well be the case for their experiment. According to the article: "To test Darwin’s idea that complex systems evolve from simpler precursors, the Avida team set up rewards for simpler operations and bigger rewards for more complex ones." That's pretty much the only description of what was rewarded, which leaves a lot of questions. Which operations were rewarded? In other words, they didn't necessarily reward only those simple operations that were part of an equals program. It looks like they were just looking at whether or not it gave the correct output: "In 23 of the 50 trials, evolution produced organisms that could carry out the equals operation. ... “When we looked at the 23 tests, they were all done in completely different ways,” adds Ofria." As for adaptations that are not selected for and might even be selected against, well, that's not particularly different from what they seem to be doing. Mutated code that is not rewarded is "not selected for" and could be argued to be "selected against" in a de facto sense. In either case it's a matter of math and code, we can make the numbers a negative. I'd recommend checking out the actual program used, it's freely available for download. (I haven't played around with it yet.) Another thing about the rewards, although "helping it along by being an artificial selective force" is one way to look at, another way to look at it is as a way to model evolutionary advantage. The eye, a favorite example of IDers, can certainly be useful. For me, the important thing is that the equals program (that according to the researchers is "irreducibly complex") did not come about from the creator going in and manually writing the code. The programs managed to do that under the pressure of what could be described as a model of natural selection. 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In the real world adaptations that did not produce a meaningful result (even though when combined with other adaptations it would be beneficial) would not necessarily be selected for and might even be selected against. 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