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Dinosaurs lived on Earth for about 170 millions years. Homo appeared on earth ~3 millions years ago, it doesnt say that they wouldnt but probably not. Intellig

by luxcem 5y ago

Dinosaurs lived on Earth for about 170 millions years. Homo appeared on earth ~3 millions years ago, it doesnt say that they wouldnt but probably not. Intelligence and civilization is not the pinnacle of evolution considering all the species that lived, live and will live without developing it. It's rather an oddity in the story of life.

imbnwa 5y ago
Simplicity always wins.
- dredmorbius 5y ago
  I'd argue that it's requisite complexity, with a constraint against excessive complexity. Complexity affords efficiency advantages, though usually with a resilience cost. Over the period in which that advantage exists, it's beneficial. A sufficient shock could (and frequently has) greatly negated the benefits of complexity.
  - HPsquared 5y ago
    "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler."
    - dredmorbius 5y ago
      Einstein. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/05/13/einstein-simple/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/05/13/einstein-simple/ A fave. Several others of similar spirit: Occam's Razor: "Entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity". "A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." -- Antoine de Saint Exupéry Ashby's "Requisite variety" (I'm not aware of a concise or elegant formulation) is another. "This law (of which Shannon's theorem 10 relating to the suppression of noise is a special case) says that if a certain quantity of disturbance is prevented by a regulator from reaching some essential variables, then that regulator must be capable of exerting at least that quantity of selection." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variety_(cybernetics) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variety_(cybernetics) It's been adapted as well to a "law of requisite complexity", which effectively states that only complexity can manage complexity, or alternatively, that the complexity of a control system should correspond to the controlled system. See "Complexity and Organization–Environment Relations: Revisiting Ashby’s Law of Requisite Variety" by Max Boisot and Bill McKelvey. There's also the phenomenon of vestigal functions in biology, e.g., sightless insects, fish, and animals found in cave environments, and even of eukaryotic organisms in which mitochondria once existed (a near-universal characteristic of eukaryotic life), but have since disappeared. (Their earlier presence can be inferred by relic genetic traces.) These are cases in which a previously evolved capability no longer provides a fitness advantage, and revert, typically through a process of genetic drift. In at least some cases, the mechanism for this appears to be that not having the capability actually affords a fitness benefit. The optical system in animals consumes a substantial fraction of neurological power, and in food-scarce environments in which sight conveys no advantage, the lack of a functioning visual system reduces overall caloric requirements. That is, there is a metabolic energy constraint on fitness and complexity. I'm not aware of a named principle that captures this. And I've suggested a possible heuristic for distinguishing between rare, false (misinnterpreted), and faked (intentionally misleading) phenomena that seems somewhat related, though it's based on perception thresholds: https://joindiaspora.com/posts/874e7c10d09c0139a7e5002590d8e506 https://joindiaspora.com/posts/874e7c10d09c0139a7e5002590d8e...

by luxcem 5y ago

imbnwa 5y ago

Simplicity always wins.

dredmorbius 5y ago
I'd argue that it's requisite complexity, with a constraint against excessive complexity. Complexity affords efficiency advantages, though usually with a resilience cost. Over the period in which that advantage exists, it's beneficial. A sufficient shock could (and frequently has) greatly negated the benefits of complexity.
- HPsquared 5y ago
  "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler."
  - dredmorbius 5y ago
    Einstein. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/05/13/einstein-simple/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/05/13/einstein-simple/ A fave. Several others of similar spirit: Occam's Razor: "Entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity". "A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." -- Antoine de Saint Exupéry Ashby's "Requisite variety" (I'm not aware of a concise or elegant formulation) is another. "This law (of which Shannon's theorem 10 relating to the suppression of noise is a special case) says that if a certain quantity of disturbance is prevented by a regulator from reaching some essential variables, then that regulator must be capable of exerting at least that quantity of selection." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variety_(cybernetics) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variety_(cybernetics) It's been adapted as well to a "law of requisite complexity", which effectively states that only complexity can manage complexity, or alternatively, that the complexity of a control system should correspond to the controlled system. See "Complexity and Organization–Environment Relations: Revisiting Ashby’s Law of Requisite Variety" by Max Boisot and Bill McKelvey. There's also the phenomenon of vestigal functions in biology, e.g., sightless insects, fish, and animals found in cave environments, and even of eukaryotic organisms in which mitochondria once existed (a near-universal characteristic of eukaryotic life), but have since disappeared. (Their earlier presence can be inferred by relic genetic traces.) These are cases in which a previously evolved capability no longer provides a fitness advantage, and revert, typically through a process of genetic drift. In at least some cases, the mechanism for this appears to be that not having the capability actually affords a fitness benefit. The optical system in animals consumes a substantial fraction of neurological power, and in food-scarce environments in which sight conveys no advantage, the lack of a functioning visual system reduces overall caloric requirements. That is, there is a metabolic energy constraint on fitness and complexity. I'm not aware of a named principle that captures this. And I've suggested a possible heuristic for distinguishing between rare, false (misinnterpreted), and faked (intentionally misleading) phenomena that seems somewhat related, though it's based on perception thresholds: https://joindiaspora.com/posts/874e7c10d09c0139a7e5002590d8e506 https://joindiaspora.com/posts/874e7c10d09c0139a7e5002590d8e...