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Michael was an agnostic / atheist who cheerfully and generously engaged opposing views. Many of his peers on the irreligious side of the fence were hostile and abrasive, but Michael exhibited unwavering respect, always insisting on assuming his opponents operate with positive intent.
He often said that despite his non-belief, he adhered to the Parable of the Talents as a rubric for judging his performance in life.
He was one of my judges for the Evolution 2.0 Prize for the origin of the Genetic Code. I felt he was an ideal prize judge because it’s well known I’m a Christian, so I loved the fact that someone from the “other team” was part of my submission evaluation panel.
Ruse wrote many books on many topics and was a great scholar of the history and philosophy of evolution.
As an example, he wrote an excellent book on Lynn Margulis’ theory of Gaia which represented her very well despite the fact that Ruse held very different views about science. In his kitchen once I asked him “So what did you think of her Gaia hypothesis?” He said “I think she was bat shit crazy” — but that didn’t keep him from presenting it in an entirely fair and positive light in his writings. This kind of fairness has been all too rare in evolutionary biology.
Below, a quintessential example of Michael’s friendly debate style in this conversation with the remarkable John Lennox of Oxford University:
I enjoyed a couple of wonderful visits to his home in Tallahassee Florida and I loved his laugh and incisive wit.
RIP Mike – you were one of the good guys.
The post Michael Ruse, RIP appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
This incisive list of questions must be answered before any two people can have a meaningful conversation about the nature of intelligence and AI (because each of us has our own personal definitions & sacred cows about being and beings). From a paper by Nicolas Rouleau and Michael Levin:
-
Definition and Detection:
– What specific capacity are you discussing (intelligence, consciousness, sentience, etc.)?
– How do you define it?
– Can it be detected externally (through scientific observation) or only internally?
– What tests or strategies would measure this capacity?
– Is performance on tests sufficient evidence, or do other factors matter? -
Material vs. Architecture:
– What makes the crucial difference between “real” intelligence and simulation:
– The materials it’s made from?
– Its causal architecture/structure?
– The process by which it was created?
– Something else? -
Binary vs. Continuum:
– Is the distinction binary (either/or) or a continuum?
– If binary: When exactly does it appear in human development?
– If a continuum: What are the key parameters defining it? -
Embodiment and Space:
– Can intelligence/cognition exist in spaces other than 3D physical space?
– Does it count if an entity operates in metabolic, physiological, or other abstract spaces? -
Origins and Engineering:
– Does the origin story matter (evolved vs. engineered)?
– What’s special about evolution that makes it more likely to produce “real” minds?
– Can these properties be engineered in principle?
– Should they be engineered? -
Hybrid Cases:
– How do you categorize systems that combine biological and mechanical parts?
– At what point does a hybrid system transition from one category to another?
– Can alien intelligences with completely different substrates qualify?
From the paper “Discussions of machine vs. living intelligence need more clarity” by Nicolas Rouleau and Michael Levin online at https://osf.io/preprints/osf/gz3km
The post Before we can even discuss intelligence, we have to agree on what it is appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Why are important conversations so difficult and why is curiosity the greatest virtue? Dov Baron from British Columbia describes the emotional source code rules that govern our conversations about politics, religion, evolution, cancer and relationships. His website is dovbaron.com.
Dov Baron dov@dovbaron.com
Podcast: https://evo2.org/podcasts/courage-fueled-by-curiosity-love/
The post Courage Fueled by Curiosity = Love appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
When most of us set out to do anything, there’s what we think is going to work in theory… and then there’s what turns out to actually work in practice.
We are sometimes slow to realize they are not the same!
I just had one of these moments myself a couple months ago. Jon Correll, the CEO of Reversing Cancer, said, “Perry, I don’t think the thing we say we’re doing is the thing we’re best at doing.
“What we say we’re doing is raising money for very specific cancer projects. Yes, it’s true and we’re doing that, but I don’t think that’s where the real magic is. The magic is we send Perry to interesting places, he meets amazing people, and something super interesting happens. And you can never predict exactly what it is going to be.”
Take the Cancer Evolution Group for example. A tiny door popped open and I got asked to help with a conference. It turned into a professional society of 5,300 doctors and scientists. It played a major role in moving the Giant Cell Theory of Cancer Origins from a backwater to front-burner hot topic today – including an international conference at MD Anderson, the world’s largest cancer hospital.
Evolution 2.0 had financial supporters then. None of them had any idea that their money was helping this get off the ground… until it got off the ground.
Finding the first Stage Negative One cancer cell is a HUGE key to curing cancer. Yet it had been ignored since 1911.
This was so profound that ¾ of my efforts are now in cancer instead of evolutionary biology.
Jon says, “We need to ask our audience overtly for greater latitude to do more experimentation. We’re not just putting the money into these specific cancer projects that you’re talking about, but we also make room for a key experimental element.”
That conversation took place on a Tuesday. The very next Saturday morning I got a voice memo from Jordan Gerding. I don’t talk to Jordan super often, and he certainly didn’t know about this conversation I had with Jon only four days earlier.
He says, “Perry, I have a Memo from the Head Office for you. You are a superconnector and that is the most important thing that you do. Compared to that, everything else isn’t just secondary, it’s tertiary. This is not an instruction to stand down. You’re not supposed to stop anything you’re doing now, but you need to bring a different perspective to it.
“These people that you meet that have these amazing projects, it’s not your job to make these projects work or to get all of their funding for them. You just need to help in the way that you can help, and the superconnecting that you do is an important part of it.”
I didn’t often think of myself as a superconnector, but it is true that when I get really geeked about something, I jump in, get involved and pretty soon I’m pulling people into it. I can’t help myself. I’ve introduced a LOT of people to a lot of others they wouldn’t know. I’m sitting at an intersection of about eight or nine different fields of science. And it’s super fun.
Jon and I have started being more diverse in our allocation of money. For example, I’m heading to a small private conference in Europe in September. My roommate there is a quantum physicist who specializes in cancer. Reversing Cancer covers my expenses for that.
There’s also a quantum physics experiment nobody’s ever done. I alluded to this in the quantum physics paper that I published a year ago: Nobody’s ever definitively determined whether plants, animals and cells can cause light to collapse into a particle vs wave, at will, the way humans can. I also discussed this on a podcast with Subboor Ahmad. The podcast is called “Discussions About Science, Philosophy and Theology.”
I am currently investigating how much it would cost to get that experiment done, publish the results and get it out there. Somewhere in that experiment hides a VERY important surprise.
What does that have to do with cancer?
A lot. It would take about six or eight steps to explain why and how, and I won’t get into those details here. (If you, dear reader, are interested, write to us at support@reversingcancer.org and I’ll be happy to fill you in.) The point is, we work on catalysts that are six or eight steps away, not just one step away, and follow the hockey puck wherever it goes.
Two months ago, I was following the hockey puck… which led to a conversation with my daughter, which provoked a new idea, which led to a phone call, then a trip to Richard Rossi’s daVinci50 longevity conference in Utah, which led me to a meeting with a vendor at a cancer conference… and we are now only a few months away from a Stage Negative One diagnostic cancer test that your doctor can order for you.
My inner ‘direct marketing lizard brain’ would love to build a marketing machine where every $1 you put into it, $3 immediately goes to cancer research, which immediately results in a super specific medical outcome. A slot machine.
That would be great… and something like that will probably exist at some point. But it’s not as straightforward as that right now.
Even though there are a lot more steps involved, I’m certain I’m working with the right people, connecting the right people, doing the right things. I don’t have any doubt about this.
Another realization was: we grew a science organization into 5,000 people, but 5,000 people are not gonna cure cancer…
FIVE People Will Cure Cancer.
And I know every single one of them.
Let’s start with James Shapiro. In 2006, I had been exploring Evolution 2.0 for two years. I thought “Evolution seems to be legit, but nobody has given me a sensible explanation of how it actually works.” Then someone sent me a paper Shapiro had written. He explained Barbara McClintock’s work, which I’d never heard of, about corn plants rewriting their own DNA. It was a giant epiphany.
James Shapiro
Shapiro is a lone wolf and a renegade. He got an English degree at Harvard, then studied genetics at Cambridge. I asked if studying literature first, then skipping biology for genetics, influenced his unusual perspective.
He said, “Absolutely. The biologists never had a chance to tell me what I was not allowed to think.” His literature background served him well, giving him a wealth of ideas to draw from.
This was also true of Lynn Margulis, who entered the University of Chicago at 16 and studied Greek philosophers before she majored in science. The Greek philosophers, especially Aristotle, saw living things as intrinsically purposeful. Once you see this, you can’t unsee it. But most people go down a different route, believing “natural selection” can make anything given enough time. This illogical idea gets planted in their imagination and they never let it go.
Jim was the first to discover that bacteria can rearrange their DNA. He became good friends with McClintock, who won the Nobel Prize in 1983. When he got tenure at the University of Chicago, he realized he could either keep his lab running or actually get something done. He closed his lab and since then, he’s become a walking human encyclopedia of PubMed, the world’s largest repository of research papers.
In my opinion he’s the best evolution expert alive. He’s been vindicated on almost every position he’s taken over his 55-year career. At 81, he’s still a professor at the University of Chicago.
I became friends with him in 2011 when his book came out. In the acknowledgments of my Evolution 2.0, the last item in the list is “a shout out to the first man to cross the Berlin wall without getting shot.” That was a reference to Shapiro, whose evolution book was the first to openly criticize the orthodoxy and get away with it. Everyone before him lost their career for contradicting the dogma.
Azra Raza
At that time, it wasn’t safe for us to be friends in public because I was too controversial. But he played a central role in my book, which is essentially “James Shapiro for Mere Mortals.” He fact-checked the entire book and wrote part of the Barbara McClintock chapter.
Jim introduced me to several important people, including Denis Noble, Frank Laukien and Henry Heng. Four and a half years ago, Jim invited me to help with a Cancer and Evolution Conference, which I immediately agreed to. One of the best decisions I ever made.
During conference preparations, Jim recommended Azra Raza’s book “The First Cell.” I read it and interviewed her for a podcast, starting our relationship. I invited her to keynote at our conference and she accepted.
Henry Heng
Henry Heng, a cancer researcher from Detroit, is one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. From his cancer research, he concluded the standard Theory of Evolution couldn’t be correct. He developed his own theory, later finding it aligned almost exactly with James Shapiro’s work. This pattern of independent discovery repeats with others like John Hands, author of Cosmosapiens.
Frank Laukien is CEO of Bruker, which makes mass spectrometry equipment used in protein studies and cancer labs. He also reached similar conclusions about evolution, independently, and has written a couple of excellent books.
Henry, Jim, Frank, and I are all outsiders who shared a common view of evolution despite coming from totally different backgrounds.
Frank Laukien
Henry was knowledgeable about the intricacies of the cancer field, while Frank had an extensive network of contacts. Frank knows everyone at Harvard and MIT. Henry emphasized the importance of Jinsong Liu’s theory of giant cancer cells.
Shapiro read one of Jinsong’s papers and was extraordinarily impressed. Jinsong, a pathologist at MD Anderson, has encyclopedic knowledge of 5,000 different tumor types.
Jinsong insists every tumor he’s ever cut open has “Giant cells” which are symbiotic, pregnant-mother pre-cancer cells. These are resilient, very difficult to kill, and have been almost completely ignored for 100 years.
Jinsong mapped the human birth cycle to tumor reproduction, showing they’re almost identical. He tied this to Barbara McClintock’s work, demonstrating this is the critical stage where environmental information gets programmed into the tumor for adaptation. We made this a centerpiece of our conference.
The conference was successful, making us a working group of AACR with 5,300 members. More importantly, a small group of people has figured out how to attack cancer at Stage Negative One.
Jinsong Liu
Jinsong held the world’s first conference on giant cells at MD Anderson in February. Azra Raza has a patent on marking these cells.
Evolution 2.0 and Reversing Cancer raise money for researchers like Azra and Michael Levin. We connect people from different fields who often know of each other but haven’t met. The Cancer and Evolution Symposium brought together people from 25 different fields, a pivotal moment in medical history.
We’ve introduced Azra to various people, including Michael Levin, Jinsong, Kevin Ham (who helped raise $300,000 for her tissue repository), and Eric Kuelker (who added a psychological test to the repository).
I helped Azra with her pitch deck, leading to connections with Richard Rossi and his longevity conference; and many other potential donors.
Toby Baxendale, a UK investor, advised Azra: “Don’t ask for $2 million or $10 million. Ask for $100 million.” She listened to him and raised $200 million for a project that will go into clinical trials late this year.
Azra connected with Creatv MicroTech, a company with a Stage Negative One diagnostic test. We’re now working with Tom Hollon, a science grant writer, to turn our efforts into large grants. This involves attending conferences, meetings, and getting into private rooms with influential people.
My role has evolved from public spokesperson to facilitating private, often extremely confidential conversations. Almost every meeting with scientists includes information I can’t share publicly. It’s become a very private endeavor, contrary to my initial expectations of public recognition.
In May, Azra and I met with Richard Rossi’s daVinci50 longevity conference. Richard’s group of functional medicine doctors is working out how to integrate our Stage Negative One diagnostic test into their patient protocols.
In June, Azra and I flew to Vancouver BC and met with a number of potential donors, including a billionaire. One generous donor so far has said yes.
Right now we are applying for a $100 million private grant, with cooperation from Harvard, Johns Hopkins, MD Anderson, Northwestern, and Montefiore Einstein hospitals. Grant writer Tom Hollon is ensuring we leave nothing to chance, and Reversing Cancer is covering his fee.
There is SO MUCH packed into what I just told you… you might want to re-read the 2nd half of this newsletter 2-3 more times. Like I said, we are only a few months away from a “Cancer at Stage Negative One” diagnostic test your doctor can order for you.
If you’re interested, email support@reversingcancer.org and we’ll get you details. This will flip the entire paradigm of cancer treatment upside down.
In the last 12 months we have made more tangible progress in arresting this horrific disease than most cancer charities, who are far larger than us, achieve in a decade.
That’s why we need your financial support. Your gift of $500, $5,000 or $50,000 wields tremendous power because we are connecting people and resources who would never otherwise come together. Dan Sullivan has a famous book “Who Not How” and we are all about the WHO.
Thank you so very much for helping us financially and making this incredible journey possible. We are moving so fast!
Your mother, father, sister-in-law, aunt, uncles and cousins… and yes, your children and grandchildren, will thank you for decades to come.
Perry Marshall
(This post is the current Evo2 Newsletter – this and previous newsletters are at: https://evo2.org/evolution-2-0-newsletters/
The post What I Really Do Here at Reversing Cancer (August 2024 EVO2 Newsletter) appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Edward Kelly is a neuroscientist whose research overturns the current popular definition of the mind. We had a fantastic conversation about his non-traditional path in scientific research. He is a scientist at the University of Virginia.
Podcast: https://evo2.org/podcasts/irreducible-mind-why-the-current-paradigm-is-passed-its-expiration-date-with-edward-kelly/
The post Irreducible Mind: Why the Current Paradigm is past its expiration date with Edward Kelly appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
The creation-evolution scene perfected polarization and cancel culture long before social media was even a twinkle in Mark Zuckerberg’s eye.
Extreme views reduce grand vistas to bumper sticker slogans. Shallow and 1-dimensional. The real discoveries hide in the space in the middle:
The middle column is the only game in town. All productive science uses it, whether explicitly or unwittingly.
The left is pessimistic about the cosmos and is endlessly surprised to find that animals can count; or ‘Junk DNA’ isn’t really junk; or that the universe is extraordinarily fine-tuned; or that dolphins have names for each other; or that cells are cognitive. Etc etc. To their credit, they insist on empirical evidence and actual experiments. At their worst they intentionally dumb down nature, take life for granted and explain away the things that matter most. All the best science from the left borrows from the middle and right, even though it rarely acknowledges this.The right side has higher expectations of nature and is not at all surprised that life has extraordinary powers. They have a rational basis for believing in a discoverable orderly elegant universe. They expect it so it’s what they find. But they tend to also not believe in progress and assume everything is slouching towards Armageddon. They confuse philosophy and theology with science. At their worst, some believe nature is incomprehensible, and believe science itself is the study of an illusion.The discovery zone is in the middle, which at its best presumes a supreme cosmic order that we are privileged to explore.The good news is that both sides have something to bring to the table, and everyone has new things to learn. My book Evolution 2.0 in two sentences: “Darwinists underestimate nature. Creationists underestimate God.”My own journey didn’t begin to fully materialize until I asked myself the question: “What if the other side were right? What would have to be true for it to make sense? What advantages come along with that view? What if it’s not good enough to know my own talking points? What if I have to be able to understand and defend the opposite view in detail?Then and only then was I able to form a synthesis of the two views. I felt like I’d discovered a new universe.The middle space, properly navigated, is infinitely deep. I believe there’s always another sub-sub-subatomic particle, another world within a world. We haven’t explored even 5% of what science can reveal.This is the space where we cure cancer, end virus pandemics, build our immune systems, and achieve 100+ year longevity for the average person.And guess what… this truth about the middle ground between political extremes extends to many areas of discussion. Not only science but politics and religion and business. All we have to do is admit our ignorance and re-ignite our curiosity.
The post The Infinite Playground of Discovery Between the ‘Left’ and the ‘Right’ appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Why are we losing the war on cancer? This mind-blowing 8-minute video will change how you think about it.
From rogue kidney cells to a $25 test that could save millions, we’re exposing the evolutionary dance of cancer.
Watch this – it might just save your life.
Every cell on Earth has the ability to re-engineer itself, cut, splice, rearrange its DNA, change its own heredity, change its own genetics. Sense whatever is going on in the environment, adapt to it at high speed. This is what makes evolution possible.
Cancer is when the cells of your own body go rogue and start evolving out of control. Your kidneys used to be a great place to work. Used to have good morale, long breaks. Had a nice boss. “Now it’s stinky in here, the work hours are too long, the breaks are too short, and the food is bad. Get me out of here!”
Those kidney cells literally want to leave, and they are stressed out. They feel threatened. Maybe they’re not getting enough oxygen, maybe they’re not getting enough nutrients. They’re struggling with toxins. They start switching on evolutionary mechanisms to defend themselves, because they want to get out. They start evolving just to survive.
Then a white blood cell goes swimming by. “Hey, if you give me a ride out of here, I’ll give you immortality. Let’s do a merger acquisition,” and the white blood cell says, “Immortality. Sounds good. I like that idea.”
They merge together and go floating off into the bloodstream. This is what we call a Polyploid Giant Cancer Cell. It is the mother of many cancers and has an all-access pass to the human body because it’s an immune cell. It’s not cancer yet, but at some point it will start spilling out baby cancer cells, which will metastasize.
Those baby cells do not consider themselves a part of you. They are independent renegades, as though they were just floating around in the ocean hunting for food. They recruit arteries and blood vessels to start sending more nutrients their way. They start tricking the immune system and telling it things that aren’t true. They start growing. They start switching on even more blades in their Swiss Army knife evolutionary toolkit.
When you attack them violently with chemotherapy or radiation, they evolve even faster, because it causes their evolutionary machinery to switch on.
When you use chemo or radiation, you are dumping napalm on a Vietnamese village. If you don’t kill everybody in the village… if there’s a few left over that are upset… here’s what happens:
Your sister-in-law calls you and says, “My numbers are looking great” and five months later she’s dead. Because the tiny percentage that were left over come back with a vengeance.
You are fighting the high-speed evolutionary machinery that the creationists told you doesn’t exist, and that the atheists didn’t mention because it didn’t fit either side’s narrative.
You can’t understand cancer unless you understand evolution. You can’t understand evolution unless you understand cancer. One of the reasons cancer research has been stuck is because the war between the creationists and evolutionists buried the real story about evolution.
In a few years we can have a $25 test at Walgreens that you do every year to find out if you’ve got stage negative one precancerous cells in your body, which are these giant cells. They’re 100 times the size of a regular blood cell, but there may only be a few hundred. Most people would never look for them or find them, but we have ways to find them.
We will have a test that tells you: Not only do you have stage negative one cells in your blood, they’re coming from your kidneys. You have unhappy kidneys, so we need to find out why. Do you need green tea, meditation, forgiveness, different diet, more exercise, more sunlight, less sunlight, different job? Can we give you a PET scan every two months and watch it like a hawk? Maybe we can cut out that little itty-bitty corner that’s cancerous?
Can we walk it back? Michael Levin at Tufts University has done experiments where he induces cancer in amphibians and then gets cancer cells to revert back to normal cells. We intend to literally reverse cancer.
We are developing several ways to take those cells out. We already know how to mark those cells and paint a red bullseye on them. Right now, there is a chip developed at Columbia you can insert under the skin that can detect those cells in your body.
I’m a marketer, so I understand why early detection sounds so good, yet people don’t do it. It’s because it’s prevention. I don’t know how many consultations I’ve done with clients where they have a prevention product and I ask, “Could you sell a cure for 100 times more money, then eventually figure out how to sell the prevention?” Because prevention’s hard to sell.
If a guy’s having a heart attack right now, you say, “I’ll fix your heart attack for a quarter million dollars,” he’ll say, “Sold.” Five years ago, you couldn’t get him to ride an exercise bike or stop eating cheeseburgers.
The people in the know need to put less and less money towards stage three and four, which is where the bleeding neck is, and put more and more into stage negative one, stage zero and stage one.
Find out more about the quest for the First Cancer Cell, and Columbia University’s Cancer Patients in Remission study – the largest of its kind.
~
Thanks to the Hard Knocks Podcast for this clip.
The post The Secret Life of Giant Cancer Cells appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
How to Save the Earth AND the Humans at the Same Time
20 years ago, I went to China and witnessed the pollution. The sun was a murky yellow haze. Six hours west of Shanghai, the countryside air was still drenched with smog.
I said to myself “If I wasn’t an environmentalist before, I sure am now.”
That said, the word “environmentalist” has become a shrill, self-righteous, strident hypocrisy where people obsessed with carbon credits appear to be more concerned about dogmas than people…
…Especially, poor people, for whom affordable energy is a matter of eating dinner tonight or not, feeding their children or not.
Regenerating Life by Jon Feldman shows that the prevailing environmentalism is yet another reductionist utopia that will never live up to its promises. But then rather than merely criticizing, he offers a thoroughly workable solution that elegantly solves two problems at once: it shows that organic farming not only solves the human health crisis, it also literally makes the earth more green and solves the greenhouse gas problem.
It’s a great documentary and, by the way, don’t miss Jon Feldman’s other film Symbiotic Earth which is a biography of Lynn Margulis. These two films go hand-in-hand and constitute a vision that is at least 50 years ahead of the current scientific orthodoxy.
Watch Jon Feldman’s film “Regenerating Life” on Amazon Video here.
The post Regenerating Life Review appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Did you know 67% of Americans think ChatGPT might be conscious? University of Waterloo survey.
What IS intelligence, anyway?
In 2024 it’s THE front-burner question.
Dr. Michael Levin at Tufts university is demolishing conventional notions of intelligence.
Re-framing AI, genetics, robotics, cancer, longevity. Identity and memory. I’ve interviewed him several times. He’s 20 years ahead of everyone.
Now the Institute of Art and Ideas (iai.tv) has thrown the two of us into the intellectual thunderdome.
Dr. Levin says our notions of intelligence are waaaay too narrow:
https://iai.tv/articles/patterns-are-alive-and-we-are-living-patterns-auid-2919?_auid=2020
I argued…
Yes, our ideas ARE too narrow…. but before we start looking for E.T. & other exotic life forms… first let’s notice the intelligences literally right under our nose:
https://iai.tv/articles/patterns-cant-explain-lifes-complexity-auid-2922?_auid=2020
Hold onto your neurons!
The post Intellectual Cage Match: Perry Marshall vs. Mike Levin appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Podcast link: https://evo2.org/podcasts/discussions-about-science-philosophy-and-theology-interview-by-subboor-ahmad/
YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNw6gwzsHo8
The post Discussions About Science, Philosophy and Theology with Perry Marshall appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
“Where did life come from” is a vast mystery. We have only a smattering of clues. Attempts to reconstruct its beginnings have enjoyed scant success. To many, the sophistication and majesty of life itself leaves us awestruck and speaks to a divinely ordered cosmos. Yet the spirit of science is to understand the systems that drive it… not ascribe what we don’t yet understand to miracles.
How do we honor science and respect the mystery at the same time?
On Unbelievable, Physicists Paul Davies and Jeremy England cordially explored life’s origin. Today, a quick look at the most stubborn aspects of the puzzle, and a proposal of how theology and science can stimulate one another rather than standing at odds.
Central in the conversation between Davies and England was: What is the “spark” that makes life alive? Where does life get its ability to look out for itself? Where does a cell derive its sense of self?
A dead planet with the same crust as earth would never have 23% oxygen; yet our living planet maintains a robust level of oxygen, steady temperatures across a billion years, and many other things, generated and regulated by life.
Dead birds don’t fly; live birds do. The phrase “far from equilibrium” is the term physicists use to describe systems that go against the flow and don’t just “roll downhill.” Jeremy England, in his book Every Life is On Fire explores how built-in biases in the flow of energy might be able to explain this.
A popular objection to the theory of evolution is that to evolve requires disorder to become order; it is said this violates the laws of thermodynamics. But instead of examining energy, Paul Davies’ Demon in the Machine approaches life from an information perspective. Davies points out that thermodynamics is being obeyed all along because living systems do consume energy.
Davies further admits that there still remains an unsolved mystery. The correct term for this order is information entropy, not thermodynamic entropy. The math for noise burying a radio signal as you drive your car is identical to the math of toast growing cold when it pops out of the toaster.
There is no such thing as “negative thermodynamic entropy”; that is why there are no perpetual motion machines, and it’s why we’re consuming so much oil. But there is negative information entropy.
Erwin Schrödinger in 1943 called it “negentropy.” It is the term for birds flying and building nests; cells maintaining boundaries of their cell walls; organisms re-arranging their DNA to orchestrate evolutionary adaptations; humans building houses and machines.
Non-living things do not exhibit any such ability. It is more than clear that living things do this… but we don’t know how. Below, a list of ten things we know, and ten things we don’t:
| What we know | What we don’t know | | --- | --- | | Life is present everywhere on earth and anything that contacts earth’s atmosphere | Where life started | | RNA strands can form spontaneously in appropriate conditions | How life started | | Life turns disorder into order | We are still searching for a physical principle that explains this | | All living cells exhibit cognition: The ability to sense changes in external or internal conditions and respond | Non-living things do not exhibit cognition. “Biology is the only known source of agency in the universe.” | | Cells, plants and animals produce new species in weeks or months, even hours; natural selection produces winners and losers. | How applicable is “natural selection” before genes and genomes become part of the picture? | | To replicate, cells require instructions in the form of code (“Von Neumann replication”) | We don’t know where code came from | | Almost all life forms use the same universal genetic code | Which came first, the code or the protocell? (“code first vs. metabolism first”) | | Obeys the laws of thermodynamics | What was the original energy source? | | Cells self-replicate in 20 minutes | Humans have yet to produce a self-replicating machine | | We have precise definitions of computers and machines | We have no agreed-upon definition for life itself |
It’s all but impossible to discuss this without raising the Big Questions. England and Davies laid their religious cards on the table. Jeremy England doesn’t embrace “God of the gaps” arguments. Yet as a practicing Jew, he does see a divine order in the fabric of the universe.
His book, wonderfully written, weaves modest Biblical poetry into his scientific evaluation of the problem. Davies is open to the possibility of a Higher Order, but feels that a personal experience would be needed for him to believe.
My own foray into these questions began in a scuffle with my ex-missionary, bordering-on- atheism brother on a bus ride in China. “Look at the hand at the end of your arm, that’s a nice piece of engineering!” I argued. He volleyed a well-articulated “evolution by natural selection” comeback.
We couldn’t agree. I set our dispute aside, then tore into it once I got home. I quickly discovered current scientific knowledge falls short of explaining life and the detailed mechanisms of evolution. Nevertheless I became convinced that evidence for evolution having occurred was robust. What we lack is a detailed knowledge of what drives it.
I initially embraced “God-of-gaps” arguments; particularly in the origin of life and the genetic code. But over time came to prefer taking order and design “wholesale” rather than “retail.”
Is the origin of life an all-out miracle? At present it’s impossible to rule that out. But we can never find out for sure unless we assume a natural explanation may be in the offing. This is the rationale behind the $10 million prize I announced two years ago at the Royal Society, and discussed with Lee Cronin on Unbelievable.
No scientist gets to say, “God did it, that settles it, let’s go out to lunch” and publish that in a scientific paper. Having been raised a Young Earth Creationist, imagine my surprise upon discovering cells perform merger-acquisitions, generating new species in a few weeks, and protozoans can cut their DNA into 100,000 pieces and re-arrange them in hours.
Today I don’t believe there is any place in nature where you can point to a dotted line and say, “See, just on the other side of that line, that’s God.”
At the opposite extreme, I also could not accept the flippant answer I once heard from Richard Dawkins on radio station WBUR: “Life is a happy chemical accident.” We cannot dumb down science to fit whatever we can manage to understand.
Instead, I propose we embrace two complementary principles:
-
- Any theory that takes a job away from a scientist is probably wrong.
-
- Any theory that attempts to eliminate God as an ultimate explanation is probably wrong.
Any scientist, naturalist or atheist can get behind item #1. Less obvious, but perhaps just as important, is the damage quietly done to science by rejecting #2. For decades the “Junk DNA” theory insisted that 97% of our genome was junk – evolutionary leftovers and genetic garbage. This was advocated by the atheist community from the 1970s until not very long ago. “Junk DNA” fit a certain narrative: Look at how clumsy and ineffective this alleged ‘god’ really is.
But when the ENCODE project and ubiquitous genome sequencing revealed that “non-coding DNA” is where the ‘interesting stuff’ is – including coding regions that organisms use to engineer evolutionary change! Then 10 years ago, CRISPR, the very gene editing technology that has taken the world by storm, came from segments of bacterial DNA that had once been believed to be “junk.” Turns out it was a bacterial database of past viral attacks.
Or consider the multiverse theory. Should we be invoking 10^500 “junk multiverses” just to avoid having to explain the fine-tuned universe we ostensibly live in now? What if there are 10^500 other universes… and what if every single one of them is also fine tuned, beautiful, and filled with wonders we can’t yet imagine?
Atheists underestimate nature… and creationists underestimate God.
Oxford physicist Andrew Briggs and Roger Wagner’s book The Penultimate Curiosity begins with 100,000 year old religious cave paintings and traces how, from ancient times to the present, science swims in the slipstream of ultimate questions.
Science and theology need not be at war, but properly understood, live in a healthy and productive tension. Like a mostly- happily-married couple.
So let’s bring this re-frame to the Origin of Life. What if the capacity to create life is “baked into the universe” from the big bang itself? What if principles of cognition and consciousness are wired into the laws of physics and chemistry? What if the potentialities for all those things are present at the ignition of the big bang? And…what if all this is discoverable?
What if life is neither a “happy chemical accident”… nor an instantaneous divine miracle… but the fruit of a purposeful cosmos endowed with the capacity to develop as it wishes to develop? Then and only then would all creatures be capable of expressing their desires in freedom, and we hope, the ultimate desire – love.
Perry Marshall is founder of the Evolution 2.0 Prize, a $10 million award for the origin of the genetic code, and author of Evolution 2.0: Breaking the Deadlock Between Darwin and Design.
The post Origin Of Life: What We Do and Do Not Know appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
I interviewed Azra Raza four years ago, and we hit it off instantly. My number one question was,
“I read your book; it’s a scathing indictment of the cancer industry. How is it that your head isn’t on a stick somewhere?”
She replied, “It’s because they all know it’s true and they know if they try to challenge me, I’ll punch right back.”
So when Kevin Ham and I organized a fund-raising bike ride in Vancouver last September, we thought “Let’s have Azra share her unfiltered thoughts in a way she can’t on a podcast or social media.” I told everyone it would be like meeting Nelson Mandela or Mother Teresa 40 years ago.
A fortunate group of people joined us. Over the next few newsletters, I want to share Azra’s “Fireside Chat” from that fundraising event.
Read her chat and enjoy!
The post “If I had a choice between a walk on the moon and saving one life from cancer, I would never look at the moon again.” – Azra Raza appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Forbes writer Andrea Morris recently interviewed Denis Noble and Joana Xavier about the revolution in evolution:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/andreamorris/2024/06/14/evolution-may-be-purposeful-and-its-freaking-scientists-out/
This is a fantastic review of the New Biology, aka “Evolution 2.0”
The post Evolution May Be Purposeful & It’s Freaking Scientists Out appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Must-watch video with Denis Noble by Andrea Morris [@DraisyMorris] explains how science got medicine’s most crucial model WRONG for 100 years:
The post Science is Reconsidering Evolution appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Ask Evolution 2.0 a question!The EV2.0 chatbot is trained on the content of the book Evolution 2.0, Perry Marshall’s published scientific papers, and the $10M prize document:
Click on the link, enter your email and ask your questions:
tinyurl.com/ev2GPT ###### (Opens in a new window. Only works on Desktop at this time.)
You can ask it questions like “How does DNA work?”
“How did the Evolution 2.0 project begin?”
“Explain evolution so 10 year old would understand”
“How do you win the $10 million prize?”
“What role does God play in science?”
“Where did life come from?”
“How do viruses evolve?”
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One of the biggest things I admire about the scientists I hang with and talk about on this blog is: They managed to survive in THIS environment… and do great work… yet somehow did NOT allow the life and curiosity to get sucked out of their souls.
YES – this is how academia really works:
This is a MUST-watch video, by one of the most popular physicists on YouTube.
The more time I spend in science, the more thankful I am that I make my living in the entrepreneurial community and not in science institutions. It’s an incredible privilege to do cutting edge scientific work… yet not be beholden to the gold stars and merit badges so many toil for.
And yes, I can confirm as an insider that the BS-factory really does work this way.
There is a TREMENDOUS amount of extremely mediocre and outright bad research that pours out of universities, government grants, and peer reviewed journals.
20 years ago when I came to realize the intolerable amount of intellectual slop in evolutionary biology, I didn’t realize how widespread it was.
It’s not just evolutionary biology. It’s everywhere, as Sabine so eloquently states.
The post Sabine Hossenfelder Cuts a Vein, and Bleeds appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
What Nobody Told You About Natural Virus Engineering-Part 1 with Perry Marshall and Dov Baron
In early 2020, the world was shut down by a virus. There are more conspiracies about that virus than there are about who shot JFK. But no matter where it came from, is it possible we need to include something no conspiracy theorist, traditional medical professional, or even the World Health Organization has genuinely considered?
According to our guest, what he’s about to reveal about viruses will undoubtedly blow your mind. Our guest is Perry Marshall. In 2019, he announced the world’s most significant science research challenge of the London Royal Society, the $10 million Evolution 2.0 prize. Perry Marshall also reinvented the Pareto Principle, and that reinvention was published in the Harvard Business Review. Most recently, he co-authored the first paper to explain how viruses evolve accurately, and that’s where we’re going today.
This scientific paper offers a new way of looking at things through “Cognition Based Evolution,” where the cells of our body work together smartly to keep us healthy. It’s a new field of virology called natural viral engineering.
Website https://perrymarshall.info/
Perry’s peer reviewed science paper “Cellular and Natural Viral Engineering in Cognition-
Based Evolution” with Bill Miller, Arthur Reber and Frantisek Baluska
A short blog post with a simple analogy explaining this new view of virus evolution.
Part 1: The Existential Crisis That Birthed Evolution 2.0
Having an Existential Crisis on a Bus in China
Natural Selection and Evolutionary Accidents
Billiard Balls, Falcons
The Hand at The End of Your Arm
Announcing: $10 Million Prize for The Origin of The Genetic Code
The New Field of Virology and Natural Viral Engineering
Virus evolution and adaptation
Natural Viral Engineering and its Implications.
Part 2: The Chicken or The Egg? Why
The Answer to The Chicken or Egg Question
Is a Virus Viruses and Patchwork DNA Sequences.
Viruses: The Open-Source Repository of Genetic Code
Lessons From Worms on Instant Evolution Cellular Development and Intelligence
The Intrinsic Intelligence Within Every Cell
Where The Miraculous, The Scientific, and Soulful Beautifully Unite
Dwarfism as an Example of The Perfectly Imperfect Adaptation: Tadpole Tails with Eyes
When The Human Body Mixes Up the DNA recipe
Why DNA in the Genome Is Far from The Full Story
Epigenetics Verses Genetics Regenerating Limbs and Organs
Why There’s No One Biological System That Masters Everything
Part 3: What if God is Dead?
The Phantom Effect of DNA on Reality
Expectation and The Wave Particle Dilemma
What Happens When You Pay Attention
Non-Accidental Cognitive Evolution
The Reductionistic Flaw
Is a Cancer Cell Conscious
Is Consciousness Cognitive of Its Own Consciousness
Embracing The Evolutionary Tension of My Being
The Schizophrenic Response to Oreos
Bible Stories and Intelligent Design
What if Nietzsche was Right
The Courage to Question Faith and Follow the Science
Why Isn’t Everything Cancer
Is God Evolving Love, Freedom, and God
Cellular and Sub-Cellular Choice
The post Virus Evolution & Natural Viral Engineering appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
I got this very popular question from Martin Rag:
I am 100% sure that most of the species were created “according to their kinds …” ( with a capability to adapt to a certain degree, if you will )
The main reason why I am so sure that species were created according to their kinds is this:
There are TOO MANY very unique species with TOO MANY very unique and sophisticated features to be some product of guided or unguided or whatever evolutionary process … (not to mention, that no biologist can explain the origin of most of these features … )
It is clear, that all these features were engineered from scratch ( to demonstrate engineering skills of our Creator )
Martin,
Let’s start by acknowledging that we have wide overlapping areas of agreement.
I agree the cosmos is divinely ordered. Spectacular beyond words.
I agree life is vastly more sophisticated than the feeble descriptions in any biology book.
I loathe the absurd, clownish oversimplifications of Neo-Darwinism.
I detest the dehumanizing, nihilistic, depressing “blind pitiless indifference” of materialism and scientism.
I abhor its arrogance and hubris.
I too am an engineer and recognize that many times biologists (especially demagogues like Jerry Coyne, Richard Dawkins, PZ Myers) have zero career experience of arriving at a great design. We engineers know this in our bones.
They are willfully blind to the sheer elegance and ingenuity that is found in every life form at at every level. They make up stories of lucky RNA strands and Junk DNA and vestigial organs. Their descriptions of science are motivated by how dumb they believe mother nature is, not how ingenious she is.
So we have many similar frustrations.
I acknowledge that the octopus is so different from other species, that not only do some religious people think it’s a separate creation… some secular people say the octopus came from outer space!
And finally I confess that many of these questions cannot be settled any time soon via empirical evidence. Because we can’t re-run the tape of history over millions of years and watch it on a video monitor.
You could be right, the various species on earth could be the result of some unknown number of divine interventions. I can’t prove that’s wrong. Because even though I can produce some species, I can never produce them all. The arguments could go on and on forever.
Our conclusions depend on our philosophical commitments.
So rather than trying to fight you, I lay my cards on the table and explain why I PREFER a minimal-miracles account of pre-human history. Why, from a scientific perspective, this maximizes human discovery.
Reason #1: I was a 6-day creationist growing up. For decades I was assured that there was “no evidence whatsoever” for new species. Then I discovered 80 years of hybridization and symbiogenesis experiments in real time; and many other forms of organismal evolution. High speed evolution is not theory. It’s experimental fact. I chronicle this in generous detail in Evolution 2.0.
Reason #2: The origin of many cancers is a high speed symbiotic merger between cells. These turn out to be incredibly frequent. We will never treat cancer effectively without a detailed account of these evolutionary events.
I found from 4 years of organizing cancer conferences and funding cancer research and that the adaptive evolutionary capabilities of tumors are absolutely astounding. It is extremely dangerous to underestimate the capabilities of any evolutionary process. We already know cancer evolution is smarter than ANY doctor or biologist.
When we under-estimate the intelligence of cells (cancer and immune cells in particular), our hubris racks up a death toll.
Reason #3: I’ve voyaged deep down the Michael Levin rabbit hole, a vast world of high speed evolution. Xenobots (frog cells self-developing into autonomous organisms that are not frogs), Anthrobots (human cells self-developing into self-directed organisms that are not humans).
In a developing frog embryo, experimenters transfer the eye from the head to the tail. Then the tissues say “hey that’s an eye” and wire nervous system signals from the eye to the spinal cord. The brain adapts. The adult frog can see out of its butt!
When his team exposed planarian worms to barium, their heads exploded; but then new heads grew right back, barium resistant. The worm’s tissues developed a defense against barium in real time – with zero reason to believe this had ever occurred before in earth’s history. This is incredibly sophisticated.
How flippin’ intelligent are these cells, anyway?
What else can these cells do, that we don’t yet know about?
What if a built-in mechanism does exist for re-arranging the body plan of an animal, on command, when environmental conditions are hostile… and all the parts of the organism will automatically compensate, just like the tissues around that frog eye?
Reason #4: The Intelligent Design Creationist stands with arms folded and says to the experimental scientist, “You can’t figure that out. I know you can’t figure that out, because God did it. You’re never going to find an answer, so forget it.”
By definition the creationist is not even willing to do the work. They just finished saying they don’t think the work is worth doing.
So the scientist is stuck doing the hard work and defending himself against public criticism from the ID people (who are chanting “nya nya you can’t solve this”).
I say the scientist is more courageous. The scientist took the high road. The ID person pulled the easy lever.
Then… when the scientist does solve it, the ID person moves the goalposts and continues his criticisms unabated. Including: “Yeah, well you’re only doing it for the grant money.”
Rinse-repeat. I’ve witnessed the mudslinging for 20 years and I’m sick of it. I find it incredibly disingenuous and anti-science. And, dare I say, un-Christian. So do most professional scientists.
I believe God architected the universe for maximum discoverability, and the only truthful way to approach science is to assume that:
(1) the cosmos is divinely ordered, not an accident;
and
(2) when you have a question, an attainable answer exists.
Nature is not in competition with God.
We are to press known secondary causes as far as they will go in explanation of facts. We are not to resort to an unknown cause for explanation of phenomena until the power of known causes has been exhausted. If we cease to observe this rule there is an end to all science and of all sound sense.
-Congregational minister and Geologist George Frederick Wright (1876)
We have scarcely scratched the scratch on the surface of what will yet be discovered in science. This is why both evolution and origin of life research are valuable.
Nobody is more brave than a young OOL researcher who already knows how slow progress has been. This is why Joana Xavier started Origin Of Life Early Career Network (OOLEN).
Reason #5: My question for any proposed philosophical viewpoint in science is borrowed from Michael Levin. It is: “How does this view give us better experiments, ask us more interesting questions and help us do superior research?”
A good case study is when Newton’s calculations predicted planets would wander off course every now and then. Newton theorized that God must nudge them back into place.
Laplace showed Newton’s math was wrong. The result was a universe more elegant than Newton’s prior conception. This is a major lesson. Let’s not fail to learn it.
Reason #6: A God who can create all the species of earth from [let’s suppose] the extreme fine-tuning of the big bang… or by imbuing the cosmos with capacities of consciousness and cognition… that kind of God is a lot more impressive than a God who has to tinker with it every now and then. See the Newton story in #5 above.
Nothing demonstrates the engineering skills of the Creator more than an ecosystem that can evolve on its own without episodes of divine intervention. All the Creator has to do is speak and it carries out the operation.
Darwinists underestimate nature. Creationists underestimate God.
I’d like to leave you with a seemingly unrelated thought that I think may be 100% related after all:
Where do great inventions come from? Where does great music come from?
Tom Waits told how he’d argue with songs that arrived at inconvenient times, saying, “Can you not see that I’m driving? If you really want to exist, come back at a more opportune moment when I can take care of you. Otherwise, go bother Leonard Cohen.”
The Greeks believed in the Muse.
Mozart said, “Whence and how they come, I know not; nor can I force them.”
J.K. Rowling wrote about the experience of Harry Potter “walking fully formed” into her head while she was on a train.
Nikola Tesla said, “My brain is only a receiver, in the Universe there is a core from which we obtain knowledge, strength and inspiration. I have not penetrated into the secrets of this core, but I know that it exists.”
What if, when adaptation is necessary, plans for organisms also arrive fully formed, and are simply executed by the cells and tissues? What if there is a “platonic database” that is “out there?”
It’s hardly a new idea. I think it’s an utterly reasonable idea. The fact that a great number of world class artists and achievers believe this is evidence all by itself.
It’s at least partially testable hypothesis, insofar as it proposes ultra-high speed evolution is possible and observable… even if we don’t know where the information comes from.
We can also form hypotheses about accessing that information at will in other ways. I explore some of those hypotheses here – “Ways to Win the Evolution 2.0 Prize”.
I don’t see how any of this is incompatible with God; if anything it’s more compatible.
“So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?” -Solomon. 1 Kings 3:9 (NIV)
~
Also read From “God Of The Gaps” to “Let’s Get This Thing Solved!”
The post What’s the matter with miracles in science? appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Biology is an incredibly conservative profession. As the famous saying goes, “Science proceeds one funeral at a time.” The situation the author is dealing with is: the public has been fed a tragically over simplified version of science. Accurate information needs to replace long-standing misconceptions.
Philip Ball’s “How Life Works” sets a new standard for biology.
However, if you are too overt in stating this, the wrath of the old guard will be visited upon you. The emperor is wearing a thong… but please don’t embarrass him.
The bestselling book “Selfish Gene” convinced an entire generation that biology is really quite simple and evolution is simple. Everything is controlled by genes which are randomly mutated; it is really the genes which are selected, not organisms; so the purpose of every organism is to simply proliferate its own genes.
This is incredibly easy to explain and seemed like a revelation to a lot of people. But it was just brain candy. The model got cause and effect entirely backwards. For 40+ years now it has been very very difficult to get those who are enamored with this idea to realize the degree to which they have misunderstood the whole thing.
The truth: genes are merely tools of the cell, which the cell edits and modifies it as it wishes. The organism is not a lumbering robotic repository of its genes; nothing could be further from the truth. Many vital functions of organisms (such as body plans) are not even coded in the genes at all.
The organism is not passive. It is an agent with its own goals.
What Philip Ball has managed to do in this book is to say all of this, mostly plain English, and say it diplomatically. A recent review Nature Magazine by Denis Noble (who defeated Richard Dawkins in a debate in 2022) welcomed it, saying it’s long overdue.
Some reader reviews complain that you need a background in biology to readily understand the book. That is inevitable. It’s simply not possible to describe how biology actually works with any accuracy, without pulling the reader into an impossibly complex world of interacting and interlocking systems.
It is a terrible mistake to think that such systems are the aimless haphazard result of natural selection, when every educated biologist knows that processes for developing, controlling, modifying, and adapting organisms to their environment are staggeringly complex.
The very last section of the book leaves it to the reader to decide whether evolutionary theory needs a major overhaul, or if it can simply be modified by adding new mechanisms and systems to the old model. It does a good job of laying out the problems with the old theory, without coming down on either side.
I’d like to offer my two cents on this question, as it has direct medical implications. The Cancer and Evolution Working Group began studying cancer as a real time evolutionary phenomenon in 2020, and the Polyploid Giant Cell Conference took place at MD Anderson Cancer Center in February 2024.
A growing number of scientists believe the birth of many cancers, and the genesis of the very first cancer cell, often occurs when a stressed kidney cell [for example] performs a symbiotic merger with an immune cell. This is high speed evolutionary Symbiogenesis exactly as described by Lynn Margulis, in which one cell joins another in a merger acquisition.
This is why we have mitochondria and chloroplasts. It turns out to be also virtually identical to embryonic development with sperm and egg. In other words a cancer tumor is a dark evil twin of conception and birth, all based on high speed real time evolution, and goes through all of the same steps. Papers by Jinsong Liu, Azra Raza and Kenneth Pienta describe this in detail.
Symbiotic merger acquisitions are not lucky accidents that occur once every billion years. They are an intentional survival strategy happen every single day! This is how people get cancer.
This turns out to be such an accurate model that abortifacient drugs can be used to arrest tumor development. There is currently much experimentation right now to develop anti-cancer drugs based on that premise.
A number of researchers hypothesize this is a major mechanism of cancer development. If this turns out to be correct, then the notion that evolution is random, accidental, gradual, has no goals, and is entirely a product of natural selection… has been preventing us from effectively treating cancer for half a century. Not only that, the “natural selection” narrative has been visited upon patients in the form of slash, poison and burn chemotherapy. Everyone knows it barely works at all.
Cancer cells use their evolutionary toolkits to evade treatment as the disease moves from Stage 3 to Stage 4 and kills the patient. Cancer cells can outsmart any physician, and develop resistance as a direct response to stresses in the environment.
So the truth is, evolution is purposeful, highly systematic, occurs at incredibly high speed. Outliers like Shapiro, Jablonka, Margulis, Waddington and McClintock have insisted this is the case for 80 years. For decades they were ridiculed. Only in the last 10 years or so has the rest of the world begun to pay attention.
“How Life Works” also introduces readers to the work of a new generation, people like Michael Levin who are making radical discoveries around embryonic development and limb regeneration. All this is based on the hypothesis that cells and tissues are smart. They develop their evolutionary goals in real time.
The book really does deliver on its subtitle “A user’s guide to the new biology.” If you invest some work to get through it, you will be richly rewarded with a far more accurate picture of biology and medicine than so many books that came before.
The post REVIEW: How Life Works by Philip Ball appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
The Cancer Open Source Tissue Repository will spare patients from late-stage slash, poison and burn; it will save lives and prevent financial disaster. It will give deep new insights into the origins of cancer; and lead to treatments that find cancer before it finds us.
The Repository, founded by Dr. Azra Raza, solves FIVE problems at once:
- Detects cancer at Stage Negative One for the people at highest risk – cancer patients in remission.
- Gives doctors and patients the chance to pre-empt recurring cancer and treat it early – while it’s still manageable and inexpensive
- Pinpoints the earliest origin of first cancer cells
- Gives unprecedented data on early stage cancer (right now, 90% of cancer data is Stage 3 & 4) including anonymized patient history
- Makes this data available FREE instead of being locked in institutional silos
A group of blue-chip hospitals including Columbia, Harvard and Johns Hopkins has agreed to take blood, saliva, stool, urine, fingernail and hair samples from cancer patients in remission, every time they come back for checkups.
This video by Perry Marshall explains the project, which has already begun at Columbia University in New York City:
The ReversingCancer newsletter describes the project in detail.
Click here to donate to this world-changing project.
The post Detecting Cancer @ Stage Negative 1 TODAY appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
How the Neo-Darwinists tried for 50 years to slam the door on a conversation we needed to be having all along:
The post Eric Weinstein takes the Neo-Darwinists to task appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Philip Ball’s new book “How Life Works” is an outstanding introduction to the new biology that transcends the dead-on-arrival textbook version of evolution that has kept science stuck in the 1970s for so long.
Philip Ball’s “How Life Works” sets a new standard for biology.
Denis Noble wrote a beautiful review of Ball’s book in Nature Magazine, saying “It’s time to admit that genes are not the blueprint for life. The view of biology often presented to the public is oversimplified and out of date. Scientists must set the record straight.
“Ultimately, Ball concludes that “we are at the beginning of a profound rethinking of how life works”. In my view, beginning is the key word here. Scientists must take care not to substitute an old set of dogmas with a new one. It’s time to stop pretending that, give or take a few bits and pieces, we know how life works. Instead, we must let our ideas evolve as more discoveries are made in the coming decades. Sitting in uncertainty, while working to make those discoveries, will be biology’s great task for the twenty-first century.”
The post How Life Works by Philip Ball: New Crack in the Berlin Wall appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Michael Levin posted this excellent video offering a new definition of cancer:Check out this amazing video project by Harvard student Jordan Strasser – about cancer in the broader context of multiscale complex systems:The post A Superior Definition of Cancer appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
This video explains, using simple and elegant mathematical proofs, why the universal computational ability proves a computer is not conscious – because all of the meanings and conventions of any computer (IOS vs Android, Java vs. PHP, WAV vs MP3 etc) are assigned by conscious beings:
Neither Siri nor ChatGPT will be ‘waking up’ any time soon.
Cristi Stoica in Romania created this video. Here is his paper that goes deep on the same subject: http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/22234/1/can-computers-think.v1.pdf Cristi has helped me with math, physics and biology papers for several years. Works at National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering. My paper Biology Transcends the Limits of Computation makes related arguments and expands on this idea.
The post Why computers are not conscious: Assigning Meaning appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
“The Selfish Gene was the best selling science book of the 20th century. But The Selfish Gene got cause and effect backwards, assigning agency to natural selection instead of the organism itself. It embraced the greatest errors of the Modern Synthesis while downplaying much of what it got right.
“It crowned the gene king of biology, even though genes are only servants of the cell. Gene-centric duality caused genomics to promise far more than it could, or ever can deliver, since it cannot distinguish between correlation and functional causation.
“That failure has been at great cost to health care by promising miracle genetic cures that have not met the greatest challenge to health services for ageing populations caused by complex multi-factorial diseases that cannot be reduced to genetic causation.
“Thus did The Selfish Gene turn Neo-Darwinism into a pop religion with its own dogmas, dressed up as science, but without the gold standard of a scientific hypothesis: an empirical test independent of the central assumption of the theory.
“To challenge its rigid dogmas was considered heresy, so that many science careers were lost by those who questioned it. Their discoveries were ignored or, at best, sidelined. These misunderstandings have set back treatments in cancer and infectious diseases by many decades. This is why The Selfish Gene is one of the greatest mistakes in the history of science.”
Denis and Ray Noble, “Origins and demise of selfish gene theory” from the science journal Theoretical Biology Forum
Witness Denis Noble’s speech at South Korea’s 21st Century Human Values Forum 2023 Closing Ceremony
The post Oxford Professor Denis Noble takes down “The Selfish Gene” appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Are your sense of “self” and your experiences and memories just a set of brain states? Is a human basically a wet computer? Or is your brain just a mechanism for channeling these things into the physical world?
Physicist Marco Masi is fascinated with consciousness studies and evolution. He lives in Germany.
Are we purely physical beings? Or are our minds extensions of something larger?
Marco Masi’s new paper “An evidence-based critical review of the mind-brain identity theory” challenges the current materialistic view.
Masi points out cases of people living normal lives despite missing large chunks of their brains from birth defects, surgery, or disease… like a man missing 75% of his brain tissue.
Since consciousness continues after a huge connection loss between brain areas, Masi argues theories that whole-brain integration is probably not the a good explanation for consciousness.
The cortex is often believed to be the seat of consciousness in mammals. Yet birds, fish and octopuses appear conscious – without a cortex. Bird brain circuits resembling mammalian cortex suggest advanced intelligence doesn’t require an exceptionally complex cortex. Evidence that octopi and lobsters feel pain also challenges cortex-centered views of consciousness.
Psychedelic drugs famously alter consciousness; fMRI studies link decreased brain activity with more intense psychedelic experiences. He says this matches ideas like Aldous Huxley’s ‘reducing valve’ metaphor – which says normal brain processes constrain rather than produce consciousness.
Masi also questions whether memory and intelligence are stored exclusively in the brain. He cites cases of people retaining memories after losing brain hemispheres, and worms holding on to learned behaviors after regenerating new brains.
This casts doubt on theories that long-term memory is stored in synapses. Masi says the rapid turnover of brain proteins is incompatible with stable, indefinite memory storage. Intelligent behaviors in plants and cells without brains further undermine brain-centric views of cognition.
See Bonnie Bassler’s brilliant TED talk “How Bacteria Talk”; and my previous blog post about Michael Levin’s Anthrobots for fine examples of cognition without brains – in this case, lung cells.
Neuroplasticity is frequently used to explain skills and memory retention even after brain damage. But, Masi cites studies questioning whether true functional remapping after strokes underlies their recovery. He points out mysterious bursts of mental clarity in dementia patients nearing death, which plasticity has trouble accounting for.
This suggests neural plasticity alone cannot account for all resilience following brain damage.
He says observing function loss after brain lesions is a fine example of “correlation is not causation.” He offers other valid ways to interpret such correlations without assuming the brain actively generates mind or consciousness.
Despite rumors that the mainstream view has it “figured out,” the mind-brain problem remains unsolved.
The post Marco Masi: Is your brain the source of consciousness? Or is it more like an antenna? appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Michael Levin at Tufts University has stumbled into a new universe. Today (30 Nov 2023) he released a new paper revealing that when nurtured outside the body, human lung cells can morph into autonomous organisms that can repair damaged nerve tissues. These creatures are called “Anthrobots.”
Michael Levin at Tufts University has discovered “Anthrobots” – human tissue cells that self-organize as autonomous creatures.
Michael writes: “We envision many future uses in the human body – laying down pro-regenerative molecules, clearing plaque from arteries, healing spinal cord or retinal damage, dealing with cancer cells or bacteria in the gut, or informing us of the status of the surrounding tissues.
“It’s crucial to note that the effect we saw – healing the neuronal scratch – was not test #78 out of hundreds of things we attempted. This was one of the first assays we tried.”
Michael’s team removed lung cells, fed them and gave them time to develop. The cells re-shaped themselves; and the cells’ cilia, the little hairs that normally push dirt and mucous on the surface of the lung, developed into organs for propelling these cells. They are highly mobile.
Levin’s team had wanted to see if normal human lung cells could build themselves into a new structure that could move around on its own. They had already successfully done this with frog embryo cells, which they call Xenobots.
They took lung cells from adults and grew them into little balls called spheroids. At first the spheroids just sat there, but after changing the environment around them the spheroids started moving!
Levin calls these moving spheroids “Anthrobots.” Most Anthrobots were between 30 and 500 microns wide, about the thickness of a hair. They moved by waving tiny hairs on their surface called cilia, similar to how parasites move. Some Anthrobots moved in tight circles while others went in straight lines or curved paths. Their speed ranged from 5 to 50 microns per second.
His team looked closer at around 200 Anthrobots to understand why they moved differently. They saw four main movement types – circular, linear, curvy, and irregular. Over 30 seconds the circular Anthrobots followed the most consistent paths while the irregular ones changed direction the most. Circular bots rarely switched to moving in a straight line, showing they preferred that motion.
When the researchers stained and scanned 350 Anthrobots, they found differences in their shapes and cilia patterns. Statistics showed there were three main “morphotypes” – small spherical bots with dense, evenly spread cilia; larger irregularly shaped bots with scattered cilia; and medium bots with patchy cilia.
Further tests revealed links between an Anthrobot’s movement type and morphotype. The non-moving spheroids matched the small, spherical morphotype. Linear moving Anthrobots fit with the large, irregular kind, while circling bots matched the medium, patchy type. The findings suggest an Anthrobot’s final structure leads to specific motion abilities.
Interestingly, the linear Anthrobots showed higher left-right symmetry than the circular ones. This matches many natural species that tend to be symmetrical along their movement axis. This experiment demonstrates the cells can spontaneously adopt key features of mobile lifeforms without direct genetic changes.
To see how Anthrobots interact with living tissues, the researchers put them into scratched sheets of human brain cells grown in dishes. Amazingly, the Anthrobots could efficiently travel across the scratches. Circular bots covered more scratch area while faster bots followed the edges more closely.
Most surprising was that some Anthrobots physically connected separated sides of scratch wounds in the brain cell sheets. This induced the cells to regenerate a tissue bridge between the cut edges.
Further tests showed the repaired areas had the same density as undamaged parts of the cell sheet. This healing was unique to where the Anthrobots had settled and did not happen elsewhere along the scratches.
To summarize, the lung cells could construct themselves into several types of motile spheres with different movement styles. Their final architecture was strongly linked to how they spontaneously moved afterwards. The Anthrobots also showed behaviors like symmetry and wound-healing abilities that mirror natural mobile species, despite having unaltered human genes.
This reveals the remarkable flexibility of cells to assemble into complex living structures with unexpected functions beyond their original tissues. Studying synthetic living systems uncovers hidden potentials of biology for applications like biomedically-useful mini-robots.
Like I said, Levin and his team have stumbled into a new universe. This article only hints at a smattering of applications from ONE kind of human tissue. I believe this represents an entire new branch of physiology and it challenges decades of assumptions about what life is and how it works. This is a Nobel Prize level discovery.
I highly recommend you read Michael Levin’s own blog post about this discovery:
Meet the Anthrobots: a new living entity with much to teach us
Read the full paper “Motile Living Biobots Self-Construct from Adult Human Somatic Progenitor Seed Cells”
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In my paper “The Role of Quantum Mechanics in Cognition Based Evolution,” I propose a new perspective on biology: thinking creates codes, which in turn control chemicals, much like a brain sending instructions to the body.
This challenges the traditional view in biology where it’s believed chemicals create codes leading to consciousness. There’s no evidence to support this traditional view in biology – only speculation.
Watch my live presentation “From Quantum Mechanics to ChatGPT” HERE.
Quantum mechanics, which is concerned with the unpredictable behavior of tiny particles, plays a crucial role in biology. By observing something, you change it. We have known this for 100 years.
All living cells act as ‘observers’ in the formal quantum sense, actively making choices and influencing what happens next.
“Negative information entropy” describes how living things create order out of chaos, making choices and creating structured information, contrasting with randomness. Life encompasses more than just chemical reactions; it’s about choices and information processing, not just automatic responses.
Reductionism, which tries to explain everything by breaking it down to its simplest components, falls short in explaining the complexity of life. It’s akin to trying to understand a forest by only examining the mushrooms growing on one tree.
Living organisms are more than just machines following a set program. They are capable of making complex choices, something machines cannot mimic. Biology has unique qualities that transcend mere chemistry and physics.
The “double slit experiment” in quantum mechanics reveals that particles behave differently under observation. This suggests that particles are aware of being watched and change their behavior accordingly.
Multiple biological processes, such as enzyme catalysis, photosynthesis, and olfaction, cannot be fully explained without factoring in quantum mechanics. Quantum behavior in these processes shows that organisms consider multiple future paths and then act to create order from chaos, without violating physical laws.
The traditional view of causation in biology as a sequence of chemicals leading to code and then to cognition is unsupported by evidence. The genetic code, for instance, doesn’t just spontaneously arise from chemistry. Instead, it’s the product of an intentional process, akin to writing software.
Finally, the role of cognition in biology is paramount. It’s not just an emergent property or byproduct but a fundamental aspect of life. This perspective opens up new avenues for understanding the interplay between life and the quantum world, suggesting that life itself is a special phenomenon that goes beyond the current understanding of physics and chemistry.
Here, I predict that not only humans but also dogs, goldfish and even single cells can collapse a wave function – because they are observers. I describe experiments we need to conduct to explore this.
These could lead to groundbreaking discoveries in science, comparable to quantum mechanics itself, relativity, and the discovery of DNA.
Read “The Role of Quantum Mechanics in Cognition Based Evolution” published in Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology.
The post Why Evolution is Quantum appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
I’ve been a Rush fan since Moving Pictures in the early 80s. Bought it when I was 12. Best album of my youth.
I didn’t make it to one of their shows until my late 20s. My wife bought me a ticket. Witnessing that show axis-shifted my notion of musical performance. Even though I had a bunch of their albums, I didn’t really ‘get it’ until I saw them pull it off live.
One thing I don’t hear very many people come out and say is: I believe Rush inspires some of their fans – especially me – to say to themselves:
“I can’t play drums like that. I can’t play bass like that. I can’t play guitar like that. BUT…
“I CAN design a circuit like that.
OR
I can write a book or scientific paper like that.
OR
I can analyze a genome sequence like that.
OR
I can create a piece of fiction like that.
OR
I can create a new technique for open heart surgery like that….
AND
I can do so with integrity, even in a commercial world that is laden with compromises.”
SO…. Fill in the blank with any challenging stir fry of technical + artistic competence, and Rush is a metaphor for wielding a level of excellence 10X beyond even the “icons of your industry.” KISS might be considered a great rock band, but their technical chops and place in history are nowhere near Rush.
That is, I believe, the real place that Rush occupies in the broader landscape. It’s not about certain songs like Spirit of Radio or Tom Sawyer. It’s about wielding virtuosity in a world that mostly doesn’t appreciate it.
The most impressive thing about Rush in my personal opinion is not that they can play like that – because if you dig deep into music you discover there are numerous musicians in prog rock, classical and jazz who have comparable chops. The impressive thing is that Rush took that complexity and virtuosity and packaged it in a way that millions of people could love and appreciate. Their songs are memorable and have great tunes and you don’t have to have a degree in music theory to love them.
So if you design circuits or write papers in scientific journals or analyze genomes or develop new methods for open heart surgery, Rush’s music not only inspires you to engineer details that only one person in 1000 will appreciate, but to ALSO somehow package and sell them to the world in a way that even ordinary people can understand and relate to.
That is PRECISELY the effect Geddy’s body of work has had on me. And that’s why I’m a fan.
I think I’m an “average” fan. I’m not the zealot who followed them around the continent and went to 10 shows on every tour. I’m not the guy who read every single forum discussion or knows every anecdote… but I did go to every show since Test for Echo and I bought all the albums.
I found this book hard to put down. Finished it in 3-4 days, and for a 500 page book that’s saying something.
Biggest unexpected thing for me was how many events in Geddy’s life I can identify with:
- Losing my father as a teenager
- Not being able to deal with the raging emotions of my bereaved mother
- Being intensely dissatisfied with an ultra-conservative religious upbringing
- Meeting a girl who, like me, was running from her past
- Marrying her and fleeing from our pasts together, but finding out eventually that we have to face up to it anyway
- Drenching myself in workaholism, leaving her alone to care for the babies and manage the house
- Always finding that “the band” [ = “the business” or “the schoolwork” or “the obligations”] are a convenient excuse to sidestep the urgent conversation that n-e-v-e-r seems to get finished
- Working like an absolute dog for a decade+ until you can get your head above water
- Finally achieving some success… then discovering there’s a huge mess to clean up from years of abdication and neglect.
So many times the parallels were absolutely eerie.
That’s why what I appreciated most about the book was its level of candor. There are things I don’t like or agree with in Geddy’s story, but the book absolutely gets 5 1/2 stars for, at least to some degree, showing “warts and all.” Including the grudges and the anger and the FU moments.
There is a point of departure where I’ve taken a different road than Geddy, Neil and Alex. It’s pretty clear that they all gave religion the finger which is embodied in their song “BU2B” which stands for “Brought Up To Believe.”
Believe in what we’re told
Until our final breath
While our loving Watchmaker
Loves us all to
Loves us all to death
I define faith a little differently. It’s not simply “believing what you’re told” but rather wrestling with the questions (just like ALL the prophets and sages) until you sort it out. St Paul phrased it as “working out your salvation with fear and trembling.”
You might have to read 1000 books. It might take decades.
I had serious disagreements with my upbringing and plenty of reasons to walk away from faith. When my dad (a pastor) took my mother, who turned out to be bipolar with mild schizophrenia, to a psychiatrist who prescribed medication, my dad was immediately demoted from his job and our family was publicly shamed in front of 2000 people. Because psychiatrists were considered evil. And my mother was believed to be indulging in “rebellion.”
We had every reason to be cynical. But instead of bailing, we worked it out. My mom got on medication, my dad vindicated himself, got his job back, and when he died of cancer 3 years later we had a community around who looked after us.
A local entrepreneur sent my mother $800 a month for years and kept her afloat (as a widow she barely had any marketable skills and worked a minimum wage job) and the only reason he did that was because he was a Christ follower – the sort who DOES the good work and doesn’t merely preach it. His generosity made it possible for me to finish college.
I went through a wrenching crisis of faith not once but more like 3-4 times. I drilled as deep as I knew how into science to answer the question “Is it really just billiard balls bouncing around in the universe, or does there appear to be some kind of plan?”
The answer I arrived at again and again – from the fine tuning of the universe and physical constants to the origin of life to the inner essence of evolution – was ABSOLUTELY YES we have every reason to believe in Goodness and that there is a Plan of some sort. I spent six years writing a book about that. That book is my equivalent of Moving Pictures. (It even has a couple of Rush lyrics scattered throughout.)
This is why there is a thread in Rush’s work that I dislike. I don’t enjoy the Clockwork Angels album because it’s drenched with cynicism and radiates negativity. The youthful exuberance of earlier albums has been replaced with, in the end, a bitter old man.
And I can’t help but feel like the 3-4 places in the album where Geddy calls out people who’ve let him down, gone back on their word or otherwise screwed them, mentions them by name in public and says “FU” – is an inevitable consequence of this philosophy.
It’s just not healthy to carry that around, not beneficial to transmit that to others.
Real life is not all caramel lattes and frequent flier bonus points. One thing you discover when you become successful is that even if you get the world’s best caramel lattes and fly around in private jets (I’ve done a little of both myself) is that it doesn’t take away The Ache.
The Ache is something you can only wrestle with and hopefully make peace with. That can only happen if you’re willing to, in my case, scrupulously tease out the good and the bad from what you’re brought up to believe.
What’s so wonderful about this book is how much “truth that can speak for itself, thank you very much” is here.
It’s not a halo polishing book. Rather it’s a gritty insider’s view of a famous musician’s life that’s a great deal harder than most people suppose, and a window into a world that while in some ways is light years different than mine, is still hauntingly familiar.
The post Review of Geddy Lee’s “My Effin’ Life” appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
The overwhelming success of genetics and molecular biology in the 1970s had an unfortunate side effect. DNA became the ‘be all’ and ‘end all’ of biology and “the selfish gene” became the new secular pop religion.
Physiology and medicine suffered great blows from this shift. The human genome project, though valuable, did not deliver even 10% of what it promised and the consequences to healthcare have been devastating.
The new book Understanding Living Systems by Raymond and Denis Noble is an easy-to-read guide to the New Biology that brings purpose back into nature and respects the agency and autonomy of each organism and its systems.
Podcast Link: https://evo2.org/podcasts/understanding-living-systems-with-ray-and-denis-noble/
Denis Noble website: https://www.dpag.ox.ac.uk/team/denis-noble
Ray Noble website: https://iris.ucl.ac.uk/iris/browse/profile?upi=RNOBL24
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Bryan Trilli is a serial entrepreneur who owns a company called Optimized Marketing that trains machine learning programmers to write better code. In this interview, he forcefully challenges the fiction of the “AI Singularity” showing that it’s impossible for this to happen given current technology. Consequently, we are asking all of the wrong questions. In this interview, we discuss what the real questions are.
Podcast Link: https://evo2.org/podcasts/the-truth-about-ai-that-not-1-video-in-100-is-acknowledging/
The post The Truth About AI that not 1 Video in 100 is Acknowledging appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Bob Regnerus digs into the real story behind Azra Raza’s day long fireside chat in Vancouver, British Columbia Sept 23 & 24, 2023. Full information at evo2.org/vancouver.
Podcast Link: https://evo2.org/podcasts/why-you-must-be-in-vancouver-sept-23-24/
The post Why You Must Be In Vancouver Sept 23 & 24 appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Is God merely a figment of our imagination?
Let’s ask an easier question. What about the number 7?
Is “7” a figment of our imagination? Does it merely exist in our heads? Or is it real?
In what sense is it real?
Is a real 7 more useful, more powerful, than a mythological 7?
What if we treat 7 as though we invented it?
VS…
What if we treat it as a truth we discovered… a transcendent reality?
The Ontological Argument (Anselm, 1077AD) asserts: “A 7 that exists is greater than a 7 that does not.”
What if instead of treating 7 like it’s real, we say:
“7 is not true, we just made it up. So while it may be useful, we’re skeptical. 7 is just an artificial construct. I don’t dispute that some people benefit from believing in 7, but you can’t touch 7 and you can’t weigh 7 and there’s no scientific evidence for 7 so ultimately people who believe in 7 are like people who believe in unicorns.”
~
The post God and the Number 7 appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Occam’s Razor says the simplest explanation is the best. While it’s application has many subtleties, it tells us that the best model of theory is the one that’s most elegant and invokes the fewest extraneous explanations. Johnjoe McFadden is a professor at the University of Surrey in the UK and we discuss simplicity and the...
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Don’t miss James Shapiro’s new piece in Aeon: How did Darwin’s 20th century followers get evolution so wrong? ~
The post The radical rethinking of evolution that is now underway appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Dean Radin wondered whether trained meditators could influence the outcome of a quantum mechanics double-slit experiment. He wanted to test if conscious observation by experienced meditators could influence the outcome: particle vs. wave. Participants, which included both trained meditators and non-meditators, were asked to direct their attention towards the double-slit apparatus and attempt to mentally...
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In a recent blog post I said cells, like humans, are quantum observers. I proposed that by focusing their attention, they shift physical outcomes. This occurs the same way inside a cell as it does in a lab in the Double Slit Experiment: Conscious intent selects physical “actuals” from a matrix of quantum “possibles.” I...
The post The World-Changing Quantum Experiment No One’s Ever Tried appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
What makes cancer cells so smart that in Stage 4 they can thwart almost any treatment anyone throws at ‘em? For that matter… what is it that makes any form of life smart at all? What is the “magic” that enables life itself to plan, build and organize? Rocks and snowflakes and sand dunes don’t...
The post Cancer and…Quantum Mechanics? appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
The profession of biology is deeply conflicted about purpose. It seeks to explain life as a physical and mechanical phenomenon. To reduce the organism to the parts that compose it. Yet life is intrinsically intentional. Our standard models of physics and chemistry leave no space for this most fundamental attribute of life. This has brought...
The post Why Quantum Mechanics is Central to Evolution appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
The Birth of a Whole New Field of Scientific Inquiry? Last time I told you about how our search for an evolutionary theory of viruses had hit a dead end. Then one day I got an email from Bill Miller: “Dear Perry, Arthur and Frantisek, I’ve written this here 80-page paper on virus evolution. I’d...
The post Beatles, Stones, and a Brand New Field of Virus Research Part 5 appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
One Trail Dead-Ends While Another Blazes into View Last time I showed you some diagrams that gave me some eye-opening insights into viruses, DNA, and ethernet packets! Read Part 3 Here. At the same time I was musing on those diagrams, I got in touch with a scientist who was about to publish a paper...
The post Beatles, Stones, and a Brand New Field of Virus Research Part 4 appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
The Journey to Natural Virus Evolution In 2019 I hired publicist Kelly Sullivan to fire up interest in my $10 Million Origin of Life Prize. Then nine months later, we all know what happened. So, two weeks into lockdown, Kelly says, “Perry, the media doesn’t want to see anything unless it’s about viruses. Surely, you...
The post Beatles, Stones, and a Brand New Field of Virus Research Part 3 appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Last time I asked you to imagine composing a mashup of the Beatles’ song “Hey Jude” with the Rolling Stones’ song “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” with your friends. (Read Part 1 here). I asked… Who wrote that mash up? Did the song “Hey Jude” write it? No. Did the song “You Can’t...
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Imagine you’re heading to a campsite to hang out with your friends for the weekend. On the drive you hear “Hey Jude” by the Beatles and “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” by the Rolling Stones on the radio.
Later, sitting around the campfire, munching s’mores and sipping beers, you start strumming your guitar and humming “Hey Jude… you can’t always get what you want…” mashing the two songs together.
Everyone laughs and gets into the spirit. Soon it becomes the “meme” of the campout.
The next morning everyone is still singing and joking around with it. When Ben complains that the breakfast coffee is thin and watery, Hannah sings, “Heyyyyy Ben…you can’t…always get…what you wa–ant.”
Later you decide to record this “mash up” and put it on TikTok. It goes viral. One hundred thousand plays. Then other people start making parodies and duets and it goes around the world.
Guess what… your silly mashup song is like a virus, and not just in the obvious way of “going viral.”
Here’s what I mean…
If you ask most virologists if a virus laying on a kitchen table is alive, they will reply NO. Why isn’t it alive? Because it just sits there. It could stay there for a thousand years and not move. It doesn’t reproduce, it doesn’t consume resources, and it doesn’t excrete waste. It’s just an assemblage of genetic material in an encapsulation of proteins.
But once a virus is in somebody, is it alive? Yes… we certainly treat it as living. The experience of the past three years should make that obvious to anyone.
Back to music. If you have a CD with “Hey Jude” on it, is the song alive?
The CD is not alive.
The speaker playing the song is not alive.
The song is just a collection of vibrations coming from your speakers.
But once the song gets inside your head, does it become alive?
Yes. It makes you dance or cry. It transforms your mood. It mixes around in your brain with all the other thoughts in there. They change it. It changes them. It changes you. It changes culture. It changes conversations. It alters relationships. It attracts people to concerts.
It is alive. When a song is written about something, we say it has been immortalized. As Carl Jung said, “People don’t possess ideas. Ideas possess people.”
And… who wrote that mash up medley of “Hey Jude/You Can’t Always Get What You Want”?
Did the song “Hey Jude” write it?
No.
Did the song “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” write it?
Of course not. You did. And what did you do? You took parts of two “viruses,” mixed them together, made a new virus and infected the world with it. Something not alive entered you, then became alive; it changed you and you changed it.
Stay tuned for Part 2.
And click here to read my recently published peer-reviewed paper on this fascinating subject.
Perry Marshall
~
The post Evolutionary Virology of “Hey Jude” appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Your boss summons you to his office. You sense something is ‘up.’ He drops the bombshell: “You are being relocated to Muncie, Indiana.”
Your heart pounds in your chest. “No way,” you retort. “We just poured our hearts into our new home. The garden blooms with vibrant colors and my wife cherishes her Yoga class.”
“Well, if you wanna keep your job… you’re moving to Muncie,” he asserts.
There is nothing appealing about Muncie (or Applebees… or the Tractor Supply store… or miles of cornfields)… except the steady paycheck.
Due to your attachment to financial stability and the sunk cost in your career, you accept the change. Muncie, thrust upon you, becomes your new reality.
But you’re not passive about it. Your wife, determined to find solace, starts a new Yoga class. Within six months, she attracts a devout following of 25 every week.
And Muncie never knew the thrill of pickleball until you arrived. Now your new pickleball team is competing in tournaments.
Though Muncie forced itself upon you, you refused to taking it lying down. You molded and shaped the town to reflect your desires. Five years later… you actually kinda like the place.
Perfect analogy to a human body attacked by a virus. The virus boldly intrudes, uninvited.
Your body retaliates, exclaiming, “I never welcomed you! Leave at once!”
“Tough luck, pal,” it sneers. “I’m playing for keeps.”
Undeterred, your body rises to the challenge. “If I can’t eradicate you, then I shall modify you.”
Every cell in your body possesses the tools to slice, splice, edit, and rearrange DNA. These tools become instruments of change, employed to reshape the virus.
The virus, once an enemy, becomes an unwitting recipient of your body’s transformative prowess. Billions of individuals intertwine with quadrillions of viruses, resulting in new viral variants.
Do you recall during the height of the pandemic when we would exclaim, “Hand sanitizer and sunlight kill COVID”? Well, viruses themselves are not technically “alive.” Yet intact viruses, even in their non-living state, wreak havoc within our bodies.
But here’s the captivating twist: our bodies have adapted to COVID-19, not just as individuals but as a collective. Across the globe, billions of people have participated in reshaping the virus.
Over the past three years, a network of COVID-19 variants has unfolded — Delta, Omicron, and countless others. They have grown more contagious, easily spreading from person to person. Simultaneously, their potency has diminished.
For most, though not all, individuals, COVID-19 has transformed into a mere shadow of its former self. What’s more, it’s not solely our immune systems that have learned to combat the virus. We, as human beings, have played an active role in altering the virus itself.
It’s like we are playing a game of tag, and we are both getting better at it.
~
A new paper “Cellular and Natural Viral Engineering in Cognition-Based Evolution” I co-authored with Bill Miller, Arthur Reber and Frantisek Baluska, describes how viruses, rather than being evil, “black-and-white enemies” are actually symbiotic partners in evolutionary progress. Just as employees forced to relocate to Muncie choose to make it a better place to live, hosts edit and engineer viruses to suit their own purposes.
The post Virus Evolution (and your new life in Muncie Indiana) appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
In the world of virology, the concept of viral tropism reigns supreme. At its core, viral tropism is all about the keys to unlock the secret of certain viral infections.
Some viruses have the uncanny ability to hone in on specific types of cells, using molecules on the surface of those cells as an entryway into the host. It’s a bit like a thief with a lock pick, able to crack the code to gain access.
The implications of this are vast. If we can understand how viruses find their way into specific cells, we can develop smarter treatments that foil their attempts. By targeting those cells with precision, we can stop the virus from gaining a foothold and wreaking havoc.
But viral tropism isn’t only about finding a cure. It’s also about unlocking the mysteries of how viruses evolve and adapt to new environments. By studying the ways in which viruses interact with different cells, we can gain insight into how they change over time and what may be coming down the pipeline.
Viral tropism is a key to unlocking the doors of a mysterious world that both intrigues and terrifies us. With each new discovery, we come one step closer to understanding the intricacies of these tiny but formidable foes.
~
Our new paper in Communicative and Integrative Biology describes Natural Viral Engineering, a new paradigm in which viruses and hosts co-engineer outcomes together. In this view, viruses are the open source repository for evolution across planet earth.
~
The post Viral Tropism: How Viruses Choose Their Perfect Hosts appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Imagine you’re building a LEGO city with your friends. In the traditional understanding of evolution (called Neo-Darwinism), you and your friends are constantly making random changes to your LEGO city. The best changes (the ones that help your city survive and thrive) stick around.
In this case, if viruses were part of the game, they’d be like bullies trying to knock your LEGO buildings over. You and your friends would have to work out ways to protect your city from these bullies.
However, a new paper by Bill Miller, Arthur Reber, Perry Marshall and Frantisek Baluska offers a new way of looking at things, called Cognition-Based Evolution.
Here, you and your friends are not just randomly building. Instead, you’re thoughtfully discussing and deciding what’s best for your city. You are actively using your tools and resources to keep the city safe and help it grow.
This is based on Natural Cellular Engineering, where cells in our body work together in a smart way to keep us healthy.
In this new perspective, viruses are not just bullies. Instead, they are like messengers or traders who go between different cities (or cell groups in our body), carrying information and resources. This new field of virology is called Natural Viral Engineering. These messengers can sometimes cause trouble (which is when we get sick), but they can also help in making our cities more resilient and innovative.
~
The post Natural Viral Engineering: New Paradigm appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Scott Ransom’s mom grounded him from the nonfiction section of the library so that he would not be corrupted by evolutionary ideas from godless secular scientists. But the questions persisted and the fascination grew. Many years later, he’s written a book reconciling modern evolutionary science with ancient Hebrew texts. His book …And It Was So: How Modern Science Sheds New Light on the Biblical Account of Creation goes far beyond the stereotypical debates to land in new insights.
Scott’s website: www.ransombooks.com
Listen on our Podcast or watch on YouTube.
The post When Dinosaur Books Are More Dangerous Than Playboy Magazine appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
I asked ChatGPT:
Write me a very short story about “selfish gene hell”
ChatGPT’s Reply:
Once upon a time, in a world ruled by the “selfish gene,” individuals were constantly in competition with one another, always looking out for their own interests and disregarding the well-being of others. This world was known as “selfish gene hell.”
People were only concerned with advancing their own genes, and as a result, the society was plagued by greed, violence, and exploitation. Relationships were devoid of trust and kindness, and the strong preyed on the weak.
One day, a young girl named Lily stumbled upon a secret garden filled with plants and animals that lived in harmony with one another. She was amazed by the cooperation and mutual support that she saw, and realized that this was the way the world should be.
Determined to spread the message of this secret garden, Lily set out to educate others about the dangers of the selfish gene and the benefits of cooperation and mutual support. She inspired others to join her, and together they worked to create a new world based on kindness and compassion, rather than greed and violence.
The post Selfish Gene Hell appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Secular scientist and academic John Hands has been described as a ‘polymath’. His 2016 book Cosmosapiens received wide praise for its analysis of human evolution since the beginning of the universe. His new book ‘The Future of Humankind’ looks ahead to what lies in store for homosapiens.
He discusses the issues with Christian thinker Perry Marshall, author of Evolution 2.0, as they discuss whether the dangers posed by AI, climate change or conflict are likely to lead to extinction, or whether we are due for a further development of human consciousness.
For more information on John Hands: https://johnhands.com/
The post Optimism or Extinction? What’s the Future of Humanity? appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Did you know that 99% of the sounds in nature are at frequencies we cannot hear? Karen Bakker opens up an entire universe of sounds and communication between elephants, whales, moths, trees, tissues and even cells.
The world around us is buzzing with communication and meaning that few of us ever suspected. Karen’s book The Sounds of Life: How Digital Technology Is Bringing Us Closer to the Worlds of Animals and Plants tells stories that will amaze you and she shares some of them in this interview.
Listen on our podcast or watch on YouTube.
The post Nature’s Invisible Symphony: The Sounds of Life with Karen Bakker appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
For many years, we humans have bench-marked ourselves against machines without even realizing it. Many scientists believe that humans really are just machines. Nick Chatrath sharply disagrees and says that the age of AI is going to demand that humans be more human than ever before. He insists that we’ve never needed a bridge between science and the humanities more than we need it right now. This extends to all aspects of leadership and organization from startup companies to institutions and governments.
Find the interview on our Podcast. Find Nick Chatrath’s book on Amazon The Threshold: Leading in the Age of AI
The post The Threshold: Leading in the Age of AI – Interview with Nick Chatrath appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
The internet TOTALLY JACKED UP the racket the guys at Amway corporation had been running for years.
It’s hard to imagine this today, but for about 20 years the kingpins of Multi-Level Marketing had managed to hide the fact that product sales were merely a legitimizing front-end for what was really just a big giant book, tape and seminar business.
I was drinking the pink koolaid full strength. But then in 1998 a guy named Sidney made a website called “Amway Untold Story” that exposed what was really going on. It delivered a TON of information that was otherwise unavailable.
But there were a couple of problems with it:
- I had enough experience to discern that most of the people telling their stories there hadn’t really done enough to expect results. (I HAD done enough to expect results… but I still didn’t have any.)
- People who were in the business and in a position to defend or explain what was going on were not allowed to advertise their businesses online so they were silent.
That’s where I decided to enter the fray. I was very confused about this and I wanted to get to the “bottom of the swamp” and understand if this thing really was a scam or not.
I already had created a website where people bought, sold and traded motivational tapes, including Amway/MLM tapes and it got quite a bit of traffic.
So I added another page called “The Amway Diamond Challenge” where I invited people who were Direct Distributors and above to address the alleged problems. I promised them anonymity.
I put up the page and confidential responses started coming in. I figured that if I collected enough stories, I could get to the bottom of just about anything.
Some patterns began to emerge:
- The “in the know” business leaders did NOT have good answers to the questions everyone was raising. They always managed to evade certain kinds of questions.
- The situation was actually WORSE than I realized. I encountered two people, for example, who had gotten death threats after they quit the business. “If you tell people about X, bad things will happen.”
Finally at one point, I decided I’d seen enough. I walked away and never looked back.
OK…. so a similar situation popped up about five years later.
But this time it was about faith and God and history and the Big Questions.
My brother was discarding his entire Christian belief system. And since we’re both meticulously trained pastors kids, this was disturbing.
For years I had run a Seeker’s Group at a megachurch in Chicago, so I was quite used to probing questions. I thought I knew a lot.
But you have not had a theological argument until you’ve had it with a guy who knows Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and who has spent four years of his life rummaging through the back alleys of the Old Testament. Bryan had a fire hose of questions and I was drowning.
At one point he did drown and decided he was done with the whole thing.
So he left me holding the bag with all those thorny questions.
Where can I go with MY questions?
I decided to do the same thing with faith that I’d done with Amway:
Put it on the anvil of the internet and let the world pound on it. We’re gonna strap dynamite to this thing and toss in hand grenades. We’re gonna subject this thing to total incineration and see what survives after the smoke clears.
I did this with not only faith, but science too.
Man… was THAT an education. It was my 80/20 worldview purge.
What happened?
I’d like to tell you the WHOLE story. That story is here:
www.perrymarshall.com/dmz
Perry Marshall
The post My 80/20 Worldview Purge appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Paul Nelson of the Discovery Institute blogged about my interview with Joana Xavier lamenting that we did not fully endorse intelligent design. This created a perfect opportunity for us to sit down and talk with Paul in person and discuss our agreements and differences.
Here we explore the gray zone between “life is a miracle” and “no miracles allowed” and we ask the question: How can a design paradigm enhance medicine and science research? Joana Xavier is a researcher at University College London and is a staff member with Evolution 2.0.
Paul’s blog post on Evolution News & Science Today.
Perry’s Evolution 2.0 interview with Joana.
Joana’s website.
The post From Rebellious Teenager to Young Adult: Intelligent Design Grows Up appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Joe Riggio’s wife, Nancy, was given a maximum of 10 years to live in her cancer diagnosis. She lived for 17 years, most of them in a very active adventurous lifestyle. They spent $2M and pursued every alternative treatment imaginable. Here Dr. Joseph Riggio accounts in detail the journey with fascinating glimpses of many treatments that did prove effective. Our conversation closes with concluding thoughts about patient responsibility and the business of cancer.
https://www.josephriggio.com/
Listen here or check out the conversation on YouTube.
The post Nancy’s Cancer: We spent $2M and tried EVERYTHING appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Denis Noble, age 86, explains why taking up ballroom dancing during the last year and debating Richard Dawkins achieved the same critical mission. This is an absolutely fantastic interview and a joy to read.
Denis Noble, 86: The Science and Art of Longevity
The post Denis Noble, 86: The Science and Art of Longevity appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
The Denis Noble – Richard Dawkins debate is finally released. New Vanguard vs. Old Guard. It’s a marketing lesson par excellence.
Denis Noble in his debate with Richard Dawkins
The debate is online here:
https://evo2.org/denis-noble-debates-richard-dawkins-full-video/
Since I’m in the marketing profession I have a few comments about this. There is a marketing lesson that even a person who neither knows nor cares about the techie stuff can learn from (and non-techies can learn a great deal from this debate just by watching Denis Noble, observing how he handles himself).
THE PROBLEM:
Richard Dawkins wrote an insanely-popular bestseller in 1976 called The Selfish Gene, it’s sold 3 million copies making it one of the best selling science books of all time.
It’s gorgeously written, simple, explainable, repeatable, elegant and wildly popular.
The only problem with it is that… it’s wrong.
If you want to know exactly where it goes wrong, watch this debate. In short, it’s wrong for ALL of the usual reasons that ALL insanely popular but technically wrong narratives are wrong: It’s over-simplified, takes all kinds of shortcuts, smashes the roses in the garden… but makes a terrific story.
(It’s also an atheistic religious narrative. People love to disbelieve. In fact the book is really a tract for recruiting atheist converts – a lesson that any savvy marketer should take note of.)
Selfish Gene is SO much easier to explain than any correct explanation, that even scientists who know better take the shortcuts. Furthermore it has a way of closing off questions and making it seem like it alone is The Complete and Final Explanation Of Everything. I’ve met many, many people who think exactly that.
This problem grows even worse when you try to correctly explain how evolution works and most people find that explanation to be puzzling and that it only leads to more and more questions.
(Excellent scientific or business models always provoke more questions than answers.)
Which, once again, is the problem you face when you try to oppose wildly popular oversimplified narratives.
That means this is a marketing challenge for the pros who have chosen to be the real adults in the room, the green berets, the masters.
What you’ll witness in this video:
-Denis has indisputable street cred. (He was on Dawkins’ PhD review committee in the 1960s) No one dares challenge his competence. In the science profession, this was a prerequisite for any David who would dare take on Goliath. INNUMERABLE people have challenged the hoary Neo-Darwinian narrative and many many scientists have lost their careers over it.
Noble, who waded into evolution’s shark infested waters after he retired, was the first challenger to have so much street cred (Fellow of the Royal Society; received a Commander of the British Empire medal from Queen Elizabeth; quasi-celebrity in British science; first person to model a human organ on a computer; reverse-engineered the cardiac rhythm which made pacemakers possible; former president of the world’s leading Physiology society) that when Neo-Darwinists accused him of being an idiot… they sounded like fools.
-Denis’s explanations are clear, simple and enjoyable to listen to.
-You will observe if you watch Dawkins’ body language that he is quite nervous.
-If you listen closely to Dawkins, he talks in circles and the best he can manage is deflect attention to side issues.
-In marketing speak, Dawkins is a “Cash Cow” (#1 incumbent in an established, non-growing market) with a 30 year head start, and Noble is a rising Star (#1 new contender in a growing market). Underdog in every sense of the word. But he is going after a different audience, recognizing that you almost never convince The Olde Guarde to change their minds anyway.
Noble is pursuing new markets, and this crowd at How The Light Gets In is young and receptive.
-I don’t know that you can tell by watching this video, but people who were at the live event tell me that Dawkins fans were astonished that he fared so poorly. Dawkins here shows surprising lack of knowledge of basic genetics and biology. I believe he’s been drinking his own koolaid for the last 40 years and has failed to consider that the Selfish Gene theory may need to be rubbished altogether.
-Noble is extraordinarily gracious, even asking Dawkins for a signed copy of his book. He shows himself to be unfailingly cordial during the entire exchange. This is in wild contrast to the way evolution debates are almost always conducted – attempts to destroy and skewer the opponent.
Denis Noble again is the underdog here and has little chance of directly altering the existing pop-culture narrative that has been endlessly repeated in the press and literature for 40 years. Nevertheless he seriously intimidates his opponents in academia to the point where virtually no one is willing to oppose him head-on.
Denis tells me that since the 2016 Royal Society Evolution conference (https://evo2.org/royal-society-evolution/), his opposition has all but disappeared.
I dislike the book “Selfish Gene” so much myself, I would have never even thought of cordially asking Dawkins to sign a copy for me. Especially on stage. But this is a shining example of where Noble knows when to stop being an idealist or scientist and be the Elder Statesman instead.
Denis said to me after the debate, “Perry, there’s a reason why I get invited to do these things. I know how to laugh WITH my opponent rather than laugh AT them.”
In spite of Denis’s underdog status, I can assure you he is making significant headway inside the corridors of science. His efforts are producing an impact in physiology, cancer, viruses, embryonic development, infectious diseases and many other disciplines.
Denis was mobbed by fans after his talk. I hope that at 85 I’m doing stuff this cool on the world stage. Enjoy!
https://evo2.org/denis-noble-debates-richard-dawkins-full-video/
The post The Marketing Challenge of Evolution appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Denis Noble debates Richard Dawkins:
Is it time to retire the Selfish Gene?
FULL VIDEO: https://evo2.org/denis-noble-debates-richard-dawkins-full-video/
High-level thinkers at Oxford University prodded Richard Dawkins to defend his Selfish Gene theory for years. He finally relented and debated Denis Noble in June 2022 at the UK’s How the Light Gets In festival.
Denis Noble, 85, was on Dawkins’ PhD Thesis review panel in the 1960s. Noble, an eminent physiologist and Fellow of the Royal Society, sharply disagrees with Dawkins’ Selfish Gene theory. “Selfish Gene” is the title of the world’s best selling evolution book by Dawkins, who says that the gene is the Master Of Everything, and all evolution serves to preserve genes.
Noble proved experimentally that this couldn’t possibly be the case when he knocked out genes that control heart’s rhythm. His results were radically different from what traditional evolutionary theory predicted.
(Noble was the first scientist to model a human organ on a computer; he achieved international fame 60 years ago for this, when he discovered the controlling factors of the cardiac rhythm. This made pacemakers possible and led to the development of the drug Ivibradine. Everyone who is alive because of a pacemaker owes their life to Noble’s research.)
Noble is now leading the charge to reform evolutionary biology, insisting that genes are overrated; and our lack of attention to the cognitive abilities of the organism is sabotaging our efforts in fighting disease and cancer.
Noble points out that the Human Genome Project, while very worthwhile, delivered FAR less than originally promised. It has not lived up to the hype and scientists are overly obsessed with genes. Noble advances his model of “Biological Relativity” which says that life is systems within systems within systems. There is no single point of master control. In his words: “There is no privileged level of causation in biology.”
For example: we know that genes build cells; but cells also build and modify genes. Like a hand drawing a hand in this M.C. Escher print.
Denis Noble organized a revolutionary meeting at the Royal Society in 2016 “New Trends in Biological Evolution.” I was there, and this is my report on the event:
https://evo2.org/royal-society-evolution
Like the 2016 Royal Society meeting, this 2022 debate with Dawkins was polite and cordial. It was not at all sullied by the bitterness and bad blood that has been almost universal in evolution discussions before now.
In my personal opinion Dawkins did not defend his model very well. At numerous points I couldn’t help but note significant gaps in his knowledge. Now having worked in the cancer-evolution field for 3 years, I believe that “Selfish Gene” has hindered research because of its rigidity and self-reinforcing viewpoints. Its adherents have great difficulty interpreting life any other way.
This is anything but an academic, pedantic debate. It has axis-shifting consequences for health care and treating disease.
Watch the action here:
https://evo2.org/denis-noble-debates-richard-dawkins-full-video/
The post Dawkins-Noble Debate appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
LIVE DEBATE Oxford professor Denis Noble locked horns with Richard Dawkins in June at the How the Light Gets In UK conference. Is The Selfish Gene holding back medicine and cancer cures? The world’s most incendiary evolutionary biologist asks if we need to rethink DNA.
The debate was both cordial and revealing. One thing that is quite clear from this debate is that Dawkins’ knowledge of biology and genetics lags 20-30 years behind current research.
The best part of this debate was how civil it was. In a world of hyper-polarization – and evolutionary biology historically being one of the worst fields in this regard – the friendly dialogue between the two was refreshing. Dawkins demonstrates great respect for Denis Noble. Appropriately so, since Noble was on Dawkins’ PhD thesis review committee and the two have been friends and colleagues for 50 years.A full transcript including the references Denis mentioned is here:
https://www.denisnoble.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/TranscriptReferences.pdf
This transcript includes the Q&A afterward which is not included in the video – very interesting questions here.The post Denis Noble Debates Richard Dawkins (full video) appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Jenny Davis was diagnosed with cancer at age 37, despite excellent diet and exercise regimens. Here we talk about her recovery from colon cancer, and it vividly illustrates the dragon we need to slay.
Listen here! Or check out the conversation on YouTube.
The post “If I had only eaten more junk food”: Jenny Davis tells her story of recovering from cancer appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
“Negentropy” or Negative Entropy is a term coined by Erwin Schrodinger in 1943 to describe how life turns disorder into order, which runs in the opposite direction of normal thermodynamics and even “Murphy’s Law.” Only life does this, and to date no one understands what principle or property enables life to do this.
In July 2022 I was invited to speak at the Thermodynamics 2.0 Conference at Appalachian State University in Boone North Carolina, with specialists from around the world from chemistry, physics, sociology, economics, biology and engineering. This is my talk “Negentropy: Convergence of Evolution, Cognition and the Origin of Life. (PDF slide deck)
A Special Issue of the Royal Society’s Philosophical Transactions A will be devoted to papers from this conference, which represents a potential sea-change in the trajectory of science.
The post Negentropy: Convergence of Evolution, Cognition and the Origin of Life appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
| SECULAR NARRATIVEDarwin’s theory of Evolution by Natural Selection vanquished childish notions of a creator.Life is ruthless competition of survival and reproduction. Nature is red in tooth and claw.Purpose in nature has been eradicated. Free will is an illusion.Science and religion are at war. There are no miracles. Skepticism is a virtue. Life is random.We are lumbering robots, vehicles for our selfish genes. | | RENAISSANCE NARRATIVEThe cosmos is divinely ordered and we are privileged to discover it.The signature genius of evolution is higher levels of cooperation. Life is a gift. It is purposeful at every level. Science explores a world that is orderly, mathematical, elegant and beautiful.Science is an act of worship, a window into the mind of a master architect. We are part of the ecosystem and have a responsibility to care for it. |
The post The Two Narratives appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Martin Schweiger is a patent attorney in Singapore who has facilitated thousands of patent cases. Martin sees more innovations and inventions in a week than most people see in a year. In this article he reviews my book Evolution 2.0 from the perspective of an engineer who asks questions about biology.
Very early in my own exploration of biology, I realized the concept of information in biology is not far from the human concept of Intellectual Property – namely that it’s unique and contextual and never just rote repetition of patterns such as you see in salt crystals. Indeed, information (genetic information but also much more) is essential to ALL novelty in biology, therefore is required for any form of evolution to take place.
In this sense, the patent applicant must prove to the examiner that their invention represents a unique contribution to the evolutionary history of the relevant technology.
Read Martin’s review here.
Quotes from his post:
I have a few books about patenting life science results sitting in my library, and none of them explains what is the big picture. They highlight certain aspects of the process of innovating in the area of working with molecular biology methods and their results. They explain how Transposition, Horizontal Gene Transfer, Epigenetics, Symbiogenesis, Hybridization, and other aspects of Molecular Biology work. But these books say nothing about how these processes work together
Perry wrote his book for people who seemed to have lost faith in the creator behind our daily world. So if you qualify for this group of targets then his book might be the right thing to read. You may find your faith in God again.
Other useful applications are for scientists that believe in Neo-Darwinism. “Neo-Darwinism” means “Evolution being the result of Random Mutation, plus natural selection, plus long times.” Example: T.G. Dhobzhansky with his fruit flies that grew legs out of their heads where antennae belong (pages 30 ff. of Perry’s book).
The finding would be that the Neo-Darwinism model is wrong if you follow Perry’s evaluation: Neo-Darwinism will get you nowhere. Random mutation is noise. Noise destroys.
Instead, better follow “Evolution Version 2.0” which is “Adaptive Mutation, plus natural selection, plus short time”. That thinking model will get you somewhere useful, as compared with the Neo-Darwinism model.
This book is a must-read if you are interested in things that go beyond your own life on earth. The quest is: who is beyond all this? And why? And how?
If the book gave me answers then why will it not give answers to you?
Please read it, you will like it. I promise!
Read Martin’s full review here:
Book Review: Perry Marshall – Evolution, Version 2.0
The post Patent Attorney Reviews Evolution 2.0 appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Perry Marshall, author of Evolution 2.0 and founder of the $10 million prize for the origin of a spontaneously arising communication system, joins Glen Reuschling, retired engineer, and Karen Wong to discuss the fundamental nature of information, choice, and the observer.
Perry Marshall and Stephen Meyer on Unbelievable
Perry Marshall, Denis Noble and Lee Cronin on Unbelievable
The post The Connection between Choice, the Observer, and the Origin of Life appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Karen Wong has a longtime interest in origins and evolution and we discuss what happens when you shift the definition of evolution. Old definition: Changes in gene frequencies acted upon by natural selection. New definition: Self-awareness at fractal levels of scale.
YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfgECbMnQOc
Podcast: https://evo2.org/podcasts/rocking-the-foundations-of-evolution/
Evolution 2.0 by Perry Marshall
Biology Transcends the Limits of Computation by Perry Marshall: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0079610721000365
The Importance of Henry H. Heng’s Genome Architecture Theory by R. Furst
The True Believer by Eric Hoffer: https://www.amazon.com/True-Believer-…
Perry’s conversation with Azra Raza about cancer: https://youtu.be/W2tbSS2dp9o
Cancer and Evolution Symposium with James Shapiro and Denis Noble: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_nVJ…
The post Rocking the Foundations of Evolution appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Why water is essential to life possessing the ability to choose, by Denis Noble of Oxford: Life begins and depends on the strange physical and chemical properties of water. This lecture by Denis Noble was delivered to a Biology Congress in Iran in 2022. In simple language it shows why water is crucial to our...
The post Why water is essential to life’s capacity for free will appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Glen Reuschling writes: I’ve taken the opportunity to read, then reread several times, your recent paper “Biology transcends the limits of computation” (2021). I’m confused. Wouldn’t a working solution to your prize challenge effectively disprove the assertion of the paper’s title? So, inquiring minds want to know, are you offering the prize challenge because you...
The post “Do you believe it’s possible to win the Evolution 2.0 Prize?” appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Joana Xavier is a rising star in the Origin of Life field. She is a researcher at University College London. She recently authored a paper with Stuart Kauffman on autocatalytic networks which are nature’s version of M.C. Escher’s hand drawing a hand. We discuss the uneasy relationship between professional scientists and Intelligent Design and then...
The post The Biggest Mystery in the History of the Universe | Joana Xavier on the Origin of Life appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
When Perry’s brother quit his missionary job and abandoned his Christian faith, this plunged Perry into a deep crisis of questioning everything himself. He decided to put Christian beliefs on the biggest public anvil he could find and invite the whole world to swing a hammer. This became an email list of two hundred and...
The post Meeting Grendel’s Mother in the Spiritual Swamp appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
There are very very few people who can slice through the jargon of molecular biology and explain how cells talk to each other in a way that a highschool student can understand. But Jon Lieff has done exactly that and his book, NAME, is a guided tour of a microscopic world that is bursting with...
The post An Invisible World Buzzing with Communication and Excitement: Jon Lieff, MD appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
In this episode we are joined by Perry Marshall to talk about his latest scientific paper entitled “Biology Transcends the Limits of Computation”. We also discuss his $10 million Evolution 2.0 Science Prize, which is the largest prize in the world in science currently. His paper – https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0079610721000365 – pushes the boundaries in the field...
The post Why Evolutionary Biology Has Big Implications For Future AI Development appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Rich Jacobs indulged his fascination with technology by starting a podcast called Finding Genius. He didn’t know that it would end up taking him into hundreds of specialties in science, technology, and medicine. His book titled Finding Genius: Understanding Viruses: 30 Questions, 25 Geniuses, 100 Amazing Insights is a beautifully edited compilation of Q&A from...
The post Viruses, and What Rich Jacobs Discovered From Interviewing 3,000 Experts appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
John Sonmez interviews Perry Marshall and they discuss why it’s impossible for computers in their current form to become conscious; how modern mathematics speaks in a new way to age-old questions about free will; the nature of consciousness; the origin of life and the very nature of reality itself. Podcast link: https://evo2.org/podcasts/siri-is-not-going-to-wake-up-any-soon-john-sonmez-of-bulldog-mindset-talks-with-perry-marshall-aboutbiology/ https://media.blubrry.com/evolution_2_0_podcast/open.acast.com/public/streams/5b4590cd802e4c0919bef6da/episodes/611cb896bd473100120ced3b.mp3
The post Siri is not going to wake up any time soon: John Sonmez of Bulldog Mindset Talks with Perry Marshall about…Biology appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Dean Radin discusses his new paper co-authored with Stuart Kauffman Psychic phenomena have been meticulously documented in hundreds of controlled studies since the 1980s. Mainstream science publications resist acknowledging this but the quality and quantity of evidence is overwhelming. Dean Radin, who has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a PhD in Psychology, began...
The post Quantum Entanglement, Psychic Phenomena and Consciousness appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Commenting on the Guardian’s recent article by Stephen Buranyi, Israeli chemist Addy Pross, an Evolution 2.0 podcast guest, wrote to me, saying: Evolutionary theory has barely begun to grapple with the real issues of biology. It amazes me how oblivious so many biologists are with regard to addressing the source of biology’s extraordinary characteristics. Recently,...
The post What happens when biology grows beyond “training wheels”? Addy Pross appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Perry and Rabbi Adam Jacobs discuss the Origin of Life Challenge, the debate between creationism and Neo-Darwinism, how to decide between the two theories of evolution, if intelligent design contradicts Darwinism and so much more. Interview Link: https://aish.com/evolution-2-0-the-coming-darwinian-revolution/
The post Rabbi Adam Jacobs speaks to Perry Marshall about Darwinism and his Origin of Life Challenge for $10 Million Dollars. appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
The Guardian ran an excellent article on the revolution that is happening in evolutionary biology: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/jun/28/do-we-need-a-new-theory-of-evolution This revolution is very much underway. The trickle turned into a flood in 2016 at the Royal Society. An article like this should have appeared in the Guardian afterward in November 2016 but didn’t. In fact, very little was...
The post Do We Need a New Theory of Evolution? appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
A new book by MIT Press stresses the urgency of approaching cancer from new angles. Some are completely new. Others are 100 years old and never given the attention they deserve. Bernhard and I discuss his motivations for taking on this project and how complex systems are much more subtle than we humans prefer to...
The post Rethinking Cancer with Bernhard Strauss appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
In September 2021, a dozen entrepreneurs gathered in Chicago and had a seminal 3-day discussion and commissioning for solving the world’s most thorny, intractable issues. Bob Regnerus was there and here we discuss what happens when entrepreneurs shift their focus from creature comforts to curing the most wicked problems of the world. Podcast Link: https://evo2.org/podcasts/how-to-solve-the-worlds-most-intractable-problems/...
The post How to Solve the World’s Most Intractable Problems appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
A very rare clinical oncologist plus theoretical biologist describes the landscape. Doru Paul of Cornell University is one of those very rare people who has both treated over 10,000 cancer patients as their doctor and simultaneously holds a kaleidoscopic view of a huge range of research, theories and literature. Today we talk about the...
The post What Exactly is Cancer Anyway? appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
John Lennox is an Oxford mathematician who is the author of the new book Cosmic Chemistry. He’s written many books about the relationship between science and religion and has debated Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. His new book candidly surveys the current state of evolutionary theory. Notable chapters include reviews of work by Denis Noble...
The post A Nobel Prize Winner Warned Me Not To Question Evolution appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
The “How the Light Gets in Festival” will be featuring a debate between my mentor, friend and scientific hero Denis Noble and renowned atheist Richard Dawkins. They throw down at 10:30 AM BST Saturday June 4. A description of the debate topic is below. You can watch live by going here https://howthelightgetsin.org/festivals/hay/festival-passes And scrolling down...
The post Noble clashes with Dawkins this Saturday appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
The book Evolution 2.0 devotes two pages to the subject of cancer and it wasn’t until two years after the book was published that this fact received any attention: It is not possible to understand cancer without an accurate understanding of evolution and vice versa. This has now expanded to five very exciting research projects....
The post From Evolution to Cancer: The Oral History of Our 7-year Journey appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Two leading pioneers in the field of cognition discuss the sea change that is underway in consciousness and evolution: Michael Levin is 10 years ahead of multiple fields in biology, producing extraordinary breakthroughs in limb regeneration, cancer, and bioengineering. Donald Hoffman is a champion of a new model that says the cosmos is consciousness first...
The post The Engineering of Consciousness with Michael Levin and Donald Hoffman appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
When you’re trying to solve a thorny, knotty, intractable, “IMPOSSIBLE” problem, the #1 thing to watch for is: Outsiders from radically different backgrounds, who not only all agree that the mainstream is hopelessly jacked up, but who ALSO came to identical conclusions – WITHOUT having ever talked to each other in advance. In Evolution 2.0...
The post Henry Heng’s Genome Chaos appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Why is there evil and suffering? Why is Old Testament Biblegod so mean and nasty? Why doesn’t God stop the injustice? Does God even have a right to create an evolutionary universe? Hear Perry’s 18 minute talk at the 2021 annual meeting of the American Scientific Association (www.asa3.org), the largest organization of professional scientists who...
The post Why the Bible Doesn’t Make Sense Without Evolution appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
I sat down with John Maddox who has a keen interest in information, computing, biology and evolution. John cuts right to the chase and hammers on the central issues that make biology a non-materialistic science…along with stories of numerous conflicts we’ve had along the way. Podcast link: Perry Marshall Explains The $10 Million Code Problem...
The post Perry Marshall Explains The $10 Million Code Problem appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
A truck hit Rich Jacobs at 65 miles an hour and sent him skidding into the ditch. He had a concussion and was banged up, but the CT scan showed that he had thyroid nodules which turned out to be cancer. Thus began Rich’s painful and frustrating and sometimes outraging journey with cancer. Rich has...
The post High-Speed Evolutionary Mechanisms in Cancer Cells—Why Isn’t Anyone Talking About Them? appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
If you ask most irreligious people about Adam and Eve, they’ll say that they are fictional characters in a fanciful story about an apple and a snake. If you ask the kind of people I grew up with about Adam and Eve, they’ll tell you that they were the father and mother of mankind 6,000...
The post Was Adam A Real Dude And Does It Really Matter? appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Little do most people know that water appears to have remarkable properties that your middle school science textbooks told you nothing about, including memory and a “fourth phase”. This appears to have deep implications for medicine and biology. Gerald Pollack maintains an active laboratory at the University of Washington in Seattle and is the author...
The post Who Knew Water to be this Controversial? appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Richard Jacobs of the Finding Genius Podcast has written a new book called Finding Genius: Understanding Cancer: 30 Questions, 70 Geniuses, 200+ Amazing Insights in which he interviews 70 scientists covering 30 questions about cancer research overlayed with his own personal experience of thyroid cancer. Hint: The cancer treatment ladder is leaning against the wrong...
The post Donuts in the Oncology Ward appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Jenny Davis is a professional athlete from Scotland who found out she had bowel cancer 9 months ago. She tells her very personal story of chemotherapy treatments, introspection, detox and our broken medical system. Links: https://www.jennydavis.org/ – Megan Macedo https://meganmacedo.com/ Hear this interview as a podcast – https://evo2.org/podcasts/chemo-was-like-pouring-bleach-into-my-veins/
The post Chemo was Like Pouring Bleach Into my Veins appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
In 2010, James Shapiro gave a talk on evolution at FERMILAB, the particle physics lab near Chicago. An astonishing 800 people showed up on a frigid January night. The audience was enthusiastic. Clearly evolution was not just a topic for propeller-heads. At some level everybody wants to know: “Where did it all come from?” I...
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December 21, 2021, is the 50th anniversary of President Richard Nixon declaring that cancer was going to be ended by 1976. Many media outlets are celebrating progress when, in fact, the progress isn’t all that impressive. Azra Raza, Columbia university oncologist, speaks candidly about her entry into the cancer field at age 24, the years...
The post 50th Anniversary of Nixon’s War on Cancer w/ Azra Raza appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
LIVE DEBATE Richard Dawkins vs. Denis Noble: Is The Selfish Gene holding back medicine and cancer cures? The world’s most incendiary evolutionary biologist asks if we need to rethink DNA. June 4, 2022 @ “How the Light Gets In” UK conference Richard Dawkins is author of the world’s best selling evolution book, “The Selfish Gene”...
The post LIVE DEBATE: Richard Dawkins vs. Denis Noble appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
The Definitive book on Why Evolution Works as Well as it Does Evolution: A View from the 21st Century, Fortified is James Shapiro’s magnum opus, a triumph of 50 years of intense scholarship – from the man who discovered that bacteria can restructure their own DNA. If you’re brand new to evolution, or not scientifically...
The post Review of Evolution: A View from the 21st Century, Fortified appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Presented at the American Association of Cancer Research “Evolutionary Dynamics” Conference, Tampa, Florida, 15 March 2022. Poster Session PDF Abstract: All cells exhibit agency and evolve purposefully. This is why cancer has outwitted doctors for 100 years and why Stage 3-4 patients are no better in 2022 than in 1930. Evolution was presumed to be...
The post Agency of the Cell: Convergence between Origin of Life, Evolution, Cognition and Cancer appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
70 Prominent Scientists Propose a Radical New Approach to Curing Cancer OXFORD, England, Feb 17, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — New breakthroughs in scientific research are challenging the traditional approach to treating cancer. That’s the view of a group of 70 scientists, chaired by Denis Noble, creator of the first 3-D model of the heart, longtime author...
The post Controversial New Discovery Could Hold the Key to Unlocking the Cure for Cancer appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Once I was listening to an NPR radio station and someone called in on the phone and asked the famous atheist, Richard Dawkins, where did life come from? He glibly replied “It was a happy chemical accident.” Then he and the show host went on as though the person was asking what flavor of jelly...
The post Origin of Life: Nature or Miracle? appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Real-life diary of a longtime colleague and client whose wife was diagnosed with breast cancer only a few weeks ago ~ Visiting plastic surgeon #2 to discuss mastectomy reconstruction… Strike 1: No directions other than address. Google did a shit job of getting us there, and it was a confusing, circuitous route to access the...
The post When They’re Lopping Off a Breast, the Customer Service is Terrible appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
The world’s 5 most popular evolution books are: College textbook Evolution by Douglas Futuyma; Selfish Gene, Extended Phenotype and Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins; and Why Evolution is True by Jerry Coyne. All sidestep and even dismiss the most vital discoveries of evolutionary biology. This Infographic details their omissions. (Click here to download PDF) Stage 4...
The post INFOGRAPHIC: 5 Most Popular Evolution Books are 40 Years Obsolete appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Sam Devis, host of the “When Belief Dies” podcast mentioned “Perry Marshall” to evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne. Sam was unprepared for Coyne’s reaction: Why is Coyne so upset? After you watch this video clip, check out this infographic comparing Coyne’s book Why Evolution is True to current literature. Related: Two papers by James Shapiro (University...
The post Jerry Coyne: Not a Happy Camper appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
The infographic “What Popular Evolution Books Ignore” details glaring omissions of bestselling books by Richard Dawkins, Doug Futuyma and Jerry Coyne. These authors provide misleading and oversimplified accounts of evolutionary mechanisms. Their omissions are hindering progress in cancer and disease research. All aspects of biology and medicine suffer as a result. The question you naturally...
The post Trustworthy Evolution Books appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
The world’s 5 most popular evolution books are: College textbook Evolution by Douglas Futuyma; Selfish Gene, Extended Phenotype and Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins; and Why Evolution is True by Jerry Coyne. All sidestep and even dismiss the most vital discoveries of evolutionary biology. This Infographic details their omissions. (Click here to download PDF) This infographic...
The post INFOGRAPHIC: 5 Most Popular Evolution Books are 40 Years Obsolete appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Two of Charles Darwin’s best ideas – rubbished for a century – turned out to be right all along. Join me and Oxford professors Paul Flather and Denis Noble for this 15 minute mini-documentary at Darwin’s Downe House estate in Kent, England:
The post Rediscovering the Real Charles Darwin appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Famed Researchers Highlight Glaring Omissions About the Power of Our Cells Say Modernizing What We Teach About Our Ability To Influence Evolution Can Change How Medicine Is Practiced OXFORD, England, July 28, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Misunderstandings and omissions from Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution have spawned massive failures in cancer, antibiotics and nutrition – and it’s...
The post Are Textbooks Holding Back Cures for Cancer? Press Release appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Why is there evil and suffering? Why is Old Testament Biblegod so mean and nasty? Why doesn’t God stop the injustice? Does God have a right to create an evolutionary universe? Audio of this presentation Slides in PDF Everyone asks: “Why is there evil and suffering in the world?” Christians and Jews answer: “Because love...
The post Why the Bible Doesn’t Make Sense Without Evolution appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Eric Kuelker Ph.D. R.Psych. discusses reliable but little known research linking cancer and heart disease to traumatic life events and stress. It turns out that psychotherapy and relationship repair reduce the chances of cancer and factors like marriage extend life more than medical treatments do. This may extend it down to the cellular level. Eric’s...
The post Childhood Trauma Causes Cancer; Therapy and Relationships Heal appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Mark Chenoweth is a theologian with a particular interest in St. Maximus the Confessor (700 AD) and St. Gregory of Nyssa (400 AD) who wrote about life on earth as a goal directed process as opposed to a series of divine miracles. Their ideas were very much in line with the ancient Greeks who have...
The post The Ancient Greek and Early Church Fathers on Evolution appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Today July 1 2021 at 11am Eastern, 10 Central, 8 Pacific, 5pm London, Evolution 2.0 is hosting the monthly Cancer & Evolution zoom call. Our speakers are Kimberly Bussey and Azra Raza. Azra will be showing how to detect cancer at Stage NEGATIVE One. The work she is presenting today is GROUNDBREAKING. Azra (upper right)...
The post LIVE TODAY: Two world class cancer researchers appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Sam Devis is a former pastor who experienced a faith deconversion a couple of years ago similar to that of my brother, Bryan. After reading Evolution 2.0, Sam and I got together to discuss my journey from fundamentalism to where I am today. We cover many fascinating aspects from Darwinist Jerry Coyne’s outrage to the...
The post Sam Devis of When Belief Dies in Conversation appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
In the year 2000, Silicon Valley titan Bill Joy delivered a bombshell in Wired magazine: “Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us.” He warned: Future machines will have no need of human beings, and we will have to compete with them for resources. Not only is this NOT going to happen, it’s a handy distraction from...
The post Why Siri is not going to “Wake Up” anytime soon – Cancer, Evolution and the Nature of Nature: Part 3 appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Athena Aktipis, author of The Cheating Cell on Evolution, Cooperation, Cancer and Skin-In-The-Game Science How does a psychology prof find herself writing a book on cancer evolution? And what does this have to do with the Zombie Apocalypse? Today’s conversation is with Dr. Athena Aktipis from Arizona State University, who hosts the Zombified podcast. We...
The post Zombie Cells Gone Wild- Athena Aktipis appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Construction is Not Computation, and the World is Not a Theorem Einstein’s theory of relativity overturned Newtonian physics in the early 1900s. Nevertheless “Newtonian” thinking has remained firmly entrenched in science. Certainly all scientists now agree that at the subatomic level and at near light speed, quantum physics overtakes Newtonian physics. But this has had...
The post 334 years after Isaac Newton: The Stuart Kauffman Revolution appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Today I offer a simple explanation of cancer. It’s far bigger than just cancer because it’s a basic truth of all life: The problem with cancer cells is that they are doing what they want to do. All the chemotherapy in the world will only strengthen their resolve to do it with more gusto. Cancer...
The post The Whole is Greater than the Sum of its Parts – Cancer, Evolution and the Nature of Nature: Part 2 appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
When I was in high school, I was in the basement on a hot summer afternoon when I heard my dad arrive early from work. He walked through the door and broke sad news to my mom: Betty, the cancer is back. Two years earlier, he’d been diagnosed with cancer in his kidney. After surgery,...
The post Cancer, Evolution and the Nature of Nature: Part 1 appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Rob Berkley left this earth December 2019 as a result of cancer. 58. Rob was THE most empathic and warm-hearted individual in the entire marketing space (I’m not exaggerating). When you would sit down with him you would feel his warmth focusing on you like an infrared heat lamp. He was one of my most...
The post Hear the Incredible Rob Berkley: His final interview appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Why does the world need both mathematical proof AND a $10 million prize verifying that we have failed to answer biology’s most basic questions? Why does the world need a science paper like “Biology transcends the limits of computation”? This video explains. View the paper online in Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0079610721000365
The post Origin of Life & Evolution: Proof these questions don’t have answers appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Read the interview transcript here. Today if you’re diagnosed with Stage 3 or Stage 4 cancer, your chances of surviving are no better than if you lived in 1930. But your chances are 100 times better when catch it early. What if you could catch cancer SUPER early – years before any obvious indication of...
The post How To Halt Cancer at “Stage NEGATIVE 1” – Azra Raza appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
George Halvorson, founder of the Institute for InterGroup Understanding, reviewed Evolution 2.0. He writes: “I had the opportunity to function as the CEO of a small hospital system and then a larger hospital system. We did some things in those settings to make care better and safer for patients. That was an extremely useful learning...
The post Institute for InterGroup Understanding reviews Evolution 2.0 appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Biblical Scholar Dr. Michael Heiser reveals a very important piece of information about how the Bible was written which directly impacts how we interpret it; The Bible was written FOR us but not TO us. While this simple fact does not undermine the impact of the Bible on our lives, it does alter the lens...
The post The Bible Was Written FOR Us But Not TO US appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
We get a significant number of submissions for the Evolution 2.0 Prize. Unfortunately, most of them do not even come close. However, some make very respectable attempts to reframe the problem and this new entry by Dmitry Kukuruznyak is above average. Dmitry is a physicist from Russia and I often find that, for some reason, physicists often...
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Perry Marshall was invited to Notre Dame Business School to present at a masters level class on new trends in medicine and biology. This talk canvases a spectrum of issues from COVID- 19, virus evolution and the dark underbelly of cancer research. Podcast: Play in new window | Download Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
The post 5 Amazing Things about Cancer, Viruses and Evolution appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Perry Marshall discusses avenues of research that may uncover the mystery of what makes life alive. Here’s each book Perry discusses in the video: The Fourth Phase of Water: Beyond Solid, Liquid, and Vapor by Gerald H Pollack Margins of Reality: The Role of Consciousness in the Physical World by Robert G. Jahn and Brenda...
The post Ways to Win the Evolution 2.0 Prize appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
How many of your Favorite People On Earth have you lost to cancer? My list is long and growing. My dad died at age 44. Cancer took out my grandpa; numerous aunts and uncles, and my dear friend Tom Hoobyar, the closest person I had to a dad in my adult life. I’ve got two...
The post What does Cancer have to do with Evolution??? appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Five years ago this week, the first shipment of Evolution 2.0 books landed on my doorstep. It had taken six years to write. I felt such incredible elation. The book has weathered exacting scrutiny by opponents. It’s brought me into a number of debates with people across the spectrum from left to right. While minor...
The post Evolution 2.0: 5 Year Anniversary! appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
In 2019, I interviewed Joel Salatin, advocate of alternate farming. Our conversation prompted me to predict for the decade 2020 – 2029 that laws would be overturned making local food production and distribution a rising economic force. I didn’t know then that COVID was about to speed that process up 10X. Here’s what’s happened since...
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There’s a category of control systems engineering called “Stochastic Control Systems” which is basically “How do you get the autopilot to get the airplane to Boston, even though there’s 114MPH headwind from the northeast, rainstorms and rising masses of air over Ohio.” The models for this have been very well developed since roughly the 1930s....
The post Random vs. Stochastic appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Collateral Damage by Mickie Kennedy Is it too late at 50 years of age to plant roots and form the kind of friendships that desire an audience with a dying man, waiting hours by a bed until he wakes and eats a bit of vanilla pudding? I suspect it’s not but life remains a...
The post A Poem About Coronavirus appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Dr. Michael Levin of Tufts University crosses many disciplines: computer science, embryo development, cancer and tumor research; limb regeneration; evolutionary theory and neural networks. If you watch some of Michael’s fascinating talks at https://ase.tufts.edu/biology/labs/levin/research/presentations.htm he’ll take you down his magical rabbit hole including worms that grow new heads when you cut them in half, tumors that...
The post Picasso Tadpoles: Michael Levin on the ‘Dark Matter’ of Biology appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Here we illustrate the difference between algorithms and conscious beings playing a simple game on the iPhone: If you ONLY get to use autofill, how long can you keep the game going? Pretty long, so long as you make choices. On the other hand, if you just pick choices at random, or let the phone...
The post Algorithm vs. Agent: Creating Information with iPhone Autofill appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Azra Raza treated cancer patients for 30 years, but not even the loss of her Oncologist husband could provoke her to write a book. It took the death of her daughter’s dearest 22 year old friend – when suddenly she realized she had to speak up. Here we discuss the one most important thing that...
The post Azra Raza On Cancer’s $250 Billion Elephant-In-The-Room appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
James Tour, a renowned nanochemist at Rice University, has been openly critical of Origin Of Life literature for being too optimistic, too sanguine and at times misleading. See this video for example www.youtube.com/watch?v=zU7Lww-sBPg When Perry Marshall took part in a discussion on the Unbelievable show with Denis Noble and Lee Cronin, host Justin Brierley mentioned Tour...
The post Trouble In Origin Of Life Paradise appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Addy Pross is a Chemist at Ben Gurion University in Israel. He’s author of “What is Life: How Chemistry Becomes Biology” by Oxford University Press. Here we enjoyed a great conversation about his specialty, Systems Chemistry, a new branch of science that enables us to build complex networks of chemical reactions like those found inside of...
The post Dynamic Kinetic Chemistry and the Origin Of Life appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Referencing the Evolution 2.0 Prize: “The largest basic research science prize in history is still on offer for the demonstration of a natural origin of genetic code from chemical organization.” –Nature Evolution and Ecology, “The early origin of cooperation” by Joana Xavier Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-019-1075-z Joana Xavier is an Origin Of Life researcher at the Institute...
The post Evolution 2.0 in the “Nature Ecology and Evolution” Science Journal appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Lynn Margulis, who died in 2012, was a piercing luminary in the history of evolutionary theory. She overturned the money changer’s tables in the temple of science and infuriated a lot of people. But history has continued to vindicate her. In this interview, she and Conner explore a very different way of thinking about life...
The post Lynn Margulis’ last interview with Conner Habib appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
This is Perry Marshall and I’m long overdue to mention a really great book that came out not too long ago. It’s called The Works of His Hands by Sy Garte. Sy is a molecular biologist that I met at some science meetings in the last few years. Probably a couple years ago he sent...
The post Sy Garte – The Works of His Hands appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
William Miller tells his story of being seduced into evolutionary science by a mysterious female named Sue. Podcast: Play in new window | Download Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS Join the conversation by commenting below! — Please “Like” This Video & Subscribe To The Channel So You Never Miss A Future Video From Evolution 2.0.
The post Bloodhounds never forget a smell appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Michael Behe infuriated traditional Darwinists with his concept of irreducible complexity more than 20 years ago. He argues instead for Intelligent Design. But what does ID really mean? Is it a puff of smoke? A perfectly executed pool shot at the start of the Big Bang? External intervention at various points along the way? Intrinsic...
The post Michael Behe, father of “irreducible complexity,” vs. natural genetic engineering appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
This Is The Next Mega-Disruptor Joel Salatin is a “Christian Libertarian Environmentalist Capitalist Lunatic” who is re-inventing the way food is grown, distributed and consumed. Here we examine how current legislation is based on 1906 technology, and the new culinary entrepreneurship that is expanding as we break the shackles of 19th century “Darwinian” agriculture. Discover...
The post Joel Salatin: The Uberization of Food (Not Twinkies, REAL food) appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
This is a discussion between me, one of the world’s most renowned physiologists, Denis Noble, and Lee Cronin who is from the University of Glasgow. He is one of the leading research chemists in the world and is increasingly involved in Origin of Life research. Here, we outline some of the unsolved problems and Lee...
The post Unbelievable? How on Earth did life begin? Lee Cronin, Perry Marshall and Denis Noble on the origins of life appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Evolution 2.0 Was Recently Featured On ThriveGlobal.com: “According to Marshall, there’s more to discover about life than you ever thought possible.” By Nathan Resnick, CEO of Sourcify, Serial Entrepreneur “If you’ve heard the name “Perry Marshall” before, it probably wasn’t in the context of science. Neither was it likely to be in the context of...
The post Thrive Global: “How (and Why) Perry Marshall Is Seeking to Unearth Life’s Underlying Forces” appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
“3 Science-Backed Ways to Teach Yourself to Become a More Creative Thinker.” “With the right mindset, creative ideas will flow more easily, opening up the path for you to create the next big thing…” See The Full Article, Here: https://www.inc.com/carol-sankar/3-science-backed-ways-to-teach-yourself-to-become-a-more-creative-thinker.html
The post Evolution 2.0 Featured In Inc. appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Perry Marshall was recently interviewed on Chicago’s Morning Answer to discuss Evolution 2.0, Entrepreneurship, & Innovation.
The post Marketing Consultant Perry Marshall talks Evolution 2.0 with Dan & Amy appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Perry Marshall, the author of Evolution 2.0 has recently been featured on Forbes.com in a discussion about his pivot from being a world-renowned marketer and serial entrepreneur to being an influential figure in the evolutionary science and communication technology space. Here’s An Excerpt: “How To Pivot Your Expertise To Starting A New Business” – By...
The post Evolution 2.0 Featured In Forbes: “How To Pivot Your Expertise To Starting A New Business” appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Author: Eugene Ulrich of dirtwriter.com Years ago I was excommunicated and shunned from my church for my views regarding the Universe’s birthday. Took me years to get where I could write more lightly of it. Here’s an article I wrote once, just for the fun of it. Titled, “Male Cow Pies and Astronomy”. “So...
The post Church kicks out member for rejecting Young Earth Creationism. This is his response appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
“But the prize underscores a paradigm shift underway in academia: ‘Evolutionary biology is emerging from a period of great resistance to new ideas.'” To read the rest of the article, please see the original publication on thecollegefix.com: Investors offer $10 million to recreate the origin of information. So far, no one can do it.
The post “Investors offer $10 million to recreate the origin of information. So far, no one can do it.” appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Sy Garte is author of The Works of His Hands: A Scientist’s Journey from Atheism to Faith. He is a PhD biologist who has published over 200 papers and worked as a grant reviewer for the NIH. Here he tells his story of transforming from militant atheism to faith and why science itself rejects materialism....
The post From Atheist Member of the Communist Party to Fervent Believer appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
At the Royal Society in Great Britain 31 May 2019, Perry Marshall and investor Kevin Ham announced the $10 Million Evolution 2.0 Prize. The meeting was hosted by Oxford Professor Denis Noble FRS CBE; and Oxford Professor Paul Flather, President of the Forum for Philosophy at the London School of Economics. Denis organized the revolutionary...
The post Royal Society Announcement: $10 Million Prize for Life’s Origin appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Denis Noble, one of the judges for the Evolution 2.0 Prize, discusses in this interview why we can’t just put lipstick on a pig – why the public needs to be aware that evolutionary theory has undergone a revolution, and how this affects not only religious and philosophical discussions but policies and actions in medicine...
The post Why “tweaking Darwinism a little” ain’t gonna get the job done – Denis Noble, the Martin Luther of Evolutionary Biology appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
We doubled the Evolution 2.0 Prize from $5 Million to $10 Million. I announced this at the Royal Society in Great Britain on Friday, May 31, 2019. The Financial Times (the UK equivalent of the Wall Street Journal) ran the story Sunday. See the FT article at www.evo2.org/ft ***Have you ever rubbed eyes and re-read...
The post Evolution 2.0, $10 Million Prize, and the Royal Society of Great Britain appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
This article has been republished with written permission from The Financial Times Ltd. Wealthy investors are offering a $10m prize to the first scientific team that can create a genetic code from simple chemicals — reproducing the unknown process that led billions of years ago to DNA as the vehicle for transmitting information...
The post Entrepreneurs offer $10m prize for cracking mystery of DNA appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
In This Episode of the Evolution 2.0 Podcast… Iconoclast, polymath, renegade and world-class chemist, Steve Benner has engineered a new breed of DNA with 8 nucleotide options instead of four. This exponentially increases its data capacity and it’s called Hachimoji DNA. What are the implications of this? In this podcast, Steve sounds off about...
The post The Man Who Re-Invented DNA: Steve Benner on Hachimoji DNA appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
A blog reader named Nelson Hernandez said: There isn’t code in DNA. Those are just letters we give chemical interactions to be able to talk about them. There isn’t a code in DNA. That’s like saying there is a code in the rain/water cycle. Nonsense. Nelson, There’s a guy who often comments on this site,...
The post Why Neither “Extreme” Can Take Science Literally appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Frank Visser discovered Ken Wilber’s work in 1982 and contacted him in 1995 by fax, after which they became friends. Frank has written the first popular academic book on Wilber: “Ken Wilber: Thought as Passion” (SUNY 2003).In this conversation, we discuss Frank’s departure from Ken Wilber’s insistence that life itself and evolution are manifestations of...
The post Ken Wilber, Involution, and Evolution as a Function of the Divine: Frank Visser and Perry Marshall in Conversation appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Michael Behe’s “Darwin Devolves” asks: Has Darwin solved the design problem in biology? Behe says absolutely not, and backs his position with detailed examples. Furthermore, nobody has really solved the famous problem of “irreducible complexity” that Behe described in “Darwin’s Black Box.” But Perry Marshall insists Behe has still omitted vital details and landmark experiments....
The post “Darwin Devolves” Review – Perry Marshall & Bill Cole discuss Michael Behe’s controversial new book appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Evolution 2.0 – Interview with Paul Braoudakis About the terminology in this interview: “Evolution 1.0” is Neo-Darwinism, which asserted that evolution is random and purposeless. Neo-Darwinism is obsolete. “Evolution 2.0” is our 21st century understanding of evolution, which says that cells evolve purposefully in response to signals from the environment, in ways far beyond...
The post Why Christians have Failed to Reckon with Good and Evil appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
In this brand new podcast interview, Daniel White Hodge of Profane Faith, and Perry Marshall of Evolution 2.0 discuss… Perry’s brother, Bryan – who went from being a Christian missionary in China to 90% of the way to atheism in just 2 years of asking the TOUGH questions about creationism. Perry’s journey from extremely conservative,...
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Perry Marshall grew up in a conservative Christian community; he was taught Young Earth Creationism in church. But when a crisis forced him to question everything, he applied Electrical Engineering to the problem. This revealed a world of discoveries he couldn’t have imagined… and engineering served him well. Cells employ digital code, error correction, information...
The post Where Did Life Come From? Perry Marshall’s Evolution 2.0 at Penn State University appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Jon Perry of Stated Clearly and I do a discussion and debate about purpose in nature which philosophers call teleology. This is the real issue that people are arguing about: Is the hand at the end of your arm an accumulation of random accidents? Or is it purposeful? That is the question. Jon has a...
The post Teleology: Purpose in Nature – Yes or No? appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
“We are to press known secondary causes as far as they will go in explanation of facts. We are not to resort to an unknown cause for explanation of phenomena until the power of known causes has been exhausted. If we cease to observe this rule there is an end to all science and of...
The post Why “God did it” halts science (even if it’s ultimately true) appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
The world’s first gene edited babies have been born into the world. Chinese twins Nana and Lulu had their DNA edited using CRISPR gene editing technology, by geneticist He Jiankui. Mr. He is a team leader at Southern University of Science and Technology in China. The twins’ DNA has now been altered to protect them...
The post Designer Babies are Here to Stay appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
In most conversations about evolution, the words “random” and “stochastic” are used interchangeably. They are entirely different. “Random” means absence of pattern and purpose. “Stochastic” means: The word stochastic in English was originally used as an adjective with the definition “pertaining to conjecturing”, and stemming from a Greek word meaning “to aim at a mark,...
The post Random vs. Stochastic Evolution appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Business Evolution 2.0 at Chicago Notre Dame! How to Extract Business Secrets from Mother Nature Perry Marshall with WBBM’s Cisco Cotto Friday November 9, 2:45-5pm Perry Marshall is an author, speaker, engineer, and business consultant. This is an invitation to sit in as he joins us in class at the University of Notre Dame’s Chicago...
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Where Did Life Come From? #1 Question in the History of the Universe Engineer offers $5 Million Prize Perry Marshall at Penn State University’s Department of Electrical Engineering Monday November 12, 1PM Hub-Robeson Center, 2nd Floor – Room 233A/B, University Park, PA 16802 MAP BUILDING FLOOR PLAN (Parking available at the HUB Parking Deck) What...
The post Evolution 2.0 at Penn State University November 12, 2018 appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
1 All forms of evolution harness identical principles. (Technology, business, music, culture and biology.) Good science is good engineering. Any theory of evolution is a theory of engineering. You can test theory by applying it to technology. You do not understand any system until you’ve built it and it works. 2 The central question in...
The post The Evolution 2.0 Manifesto appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
I’ve been conversing with folks on Peaceful Science about randomness in evolution. I asked them to define randomness. “T_aquaticus” replied: If you purposefully shuffle a deck of cards the result is still a random order of cards. Mathematician Neil Rickert replied: In ordinary life, “random” is used with a range of different meanings. For biology,...
The post Are Evolutionary Mutations Random? Or Are They Engineered for Success? appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Joshua Swamidass from Washington University invited me to respond to conversations on his blog about Evolution 2.0. I wrote two blog posts in response. We are asking: Are the mutations that produce useful changes in evolution random? Or not? Joshua says they’re random. I (along with scientists like Nobel Prize winner Barbara McClintock) insist cells...
The post Order = Signal. Random = Noise. appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Below is an email I just received from a reader of Evolution 2.0. I loved the insights in his email and at the end of it, he asked a great question about unchanged organisms and Evolutionary Creation. So instead of responding privately, I thought I’d make this a public conversation for the rest of the...
The post A Letter (And Question) from Martin Rag Concerning Unchanged Organisms and Evolutionary Creation appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
For a century, the belief was that genetic information built organisms, never the other way around. A new paper by Denis Noble definitively proves otherwise. The paper is called “Central Dogma or Central Debate.” In this interview, Denis explains the revolution that is going on in genetics. Interview Transcription Perry Marshall: Hello! This is Perry...
The post The Central Dogma and the Weismann Barrier: Does Genetic Information Flow Both Ways? Denis Noble Interview appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
In my blog post It’s Time to Tighten the Definition of “Random” I said it makes no sense to say “There is a pattern to a mutation’s randomness.” Joshua Swamidass (Washington University) and friends challenged me on this. Before I respond, let’s understand why anyone should care. I first tumbled into the evolution rabbit hole...
The post Are Evolutionary Mutations Random? Swamidass vs. Extended Synthesis appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
S. Joshua Swamidass is an associate professor in the Laboratory and Genomic Medicine Division at Washington University in St Louis. His research uses computational methods solve problems at the intersection of medicine, chemistry and biology. Joshua and I have met at several conferences and had long discussions. He, like myself, is very interested in ending...
The post It’s Time to Tighten the Definition of “Random” appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Guest Post by Steve Huffey The last sentence of “On the Origin of Species ….” reveals a struggle. In his book, “On the Origin of Species ….”, Darwin wrote “Creator” nine times, “God” once, and quoted a statement including “God”; all put in a positive light. But in the topic and public debate of evolution,...
The post Did Charles Darwin Believe in Design? The answer may surprise you. appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Today Perry reveals his true intentions with the Evolution 2.0 initiative. He tells us that his goal is NOT to prove God exists. Rather it’s to heal the rift between science and religion. To create a “Demilitarized Zone” where people from “both sides” lay their weapons down and work together to find the truth...
The post Evolution 2.0 Author’s Main Goal Is NOT To Prove God Exists, It’s To Stop The War… appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
In this exciting video Perry reveals how evolutionary mechanisms of gradual and sudden change work. Do you remember one of the original computer operating systems called “DOS”? If not, think of the most primitive operating system imaginable (outside of punch cards) Got it in your head? Good. Now think of Windows 10. Think of...
The post Defending Marriage Between Evolution & Design Against The World’s Largest Group Of Atheists. appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Most believe that evolution and intelligent design are independent thoughts, unable to merge without a catastrophe. In this video, Perry reveals how the two not only co-habitate but are interconnected. Evolution does happen, every single day… But it’s not random. In fact, from everything we know, it follows a set of rules that we’re put...
The post Are Evolution And Intelligent Design Connected? This Video Reveals The Answer… appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Perry continues his story as he moves from his hometown into the big city of Chicago and begins attending one of the largest churches in the country, Willow Creek. Being a stark contrast from his fundamentalist upbringing, his new journey further cements his ability to question what he’s been told about Young Earth Creationism and...
The post A Quest To The Bottom Of The Proverbial “Evolutionary Swamp…” appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Growing up in a Rule Following, Fundamentalist, Exact World Perry’s roots began in a conservative church in Lincoln, Nebraska where his dad became the pastor of a church led by a man named Mr G when he was 10 years old. His dad’s pastoral work was perfectly aligned with the long lineage of...
The post From Young Earth Creation To Evolution 2.0 – The Story appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
The Creation Research Society reviewed Evolution 2.0 shortly after it came out, then recently published a second, more extended review (11 pages, click to see the entire article). The editor adds: “This greatly extended review of an important book is warranted.” Clearly they do not like the book, though they do indicate that had I trod...
The post Creation Research Society Reviews “Evolution 2.0” by Perry Marshall appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
The question of purpose in nature has been hotly debated for a very long time. In his new book Is There Purpose in Biology?: The Cost of Existence and the God of Love, Denis Alexander explores the very long history with a fine toothed comb, then brings us up to date with recent biochemistry. Richard...
The post Is There Purpose in Biology? Denis Alexander book Review appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers wrote a fantastic article about the Evolution 2.0 prize. Check it out here: https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-human-os/biomedical/diagnostics/5-million-prize-for-origin-of-genetic-code
The post Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers on the Evolution 2.0 Prize appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Rich Jacobs, founder of the FutureTech Podcast, is a long-time colleague. Rich interviewed me and sent me some interesting questions: Why do you think it took billions of Years for life to evolve on earth? Answer: Rather than looking at that as a long time, you might think of it as the shortest time in...
The post Why Billions of Years? appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
A friend of mine commented that the Trinity was a made-up crazy idea concocted by the church in the early middle ages. I say the Trinity is reflected in the very nature of information. Nassim Nicholas Taleb wrote this fascinating Facebook post about information theory: Take a good look at this diagram and study it,...
The post Information Theory and the Trinity appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Amazon reviewer Gordon posted this question: Perry, why have you not referenced any of Stephen Meyer’s books (“Darwin’s Doubt” or “Signature in the Cell”) or William Dembski’s books (“Debating Design” or “Signs of Intelligence”)? Please respond. Answer: In Chapter 17 of Evolution 2.0 I give a full explanation: In 2009, the famous atheist Richard Dawkins...
The post Dawkins vs. Marshall vs. Meyer: Place Your Bets appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Do modern Genetic Algorithms prove Darwinian evolution?An Amazon reviewer named L. Sojo posted this scathing critique: “Pay the Prize” The author writes: …then why don’t engineers use Darwinian evolution to design cars or write software? … I am offering an award to the first person who can discover a process by which nonliving thins can...
The post Genetic Algorithms & the 1-Star Review appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
For years I just sort of assumed that cells were self-reproducing blobs of protein. Maybe you did too. Turns out they're way smarter than that. You will be amazed at this video. Bonnie Basler from Princeton University gives a beautiful talk on how bacteria communicate with each other by making words out of molecules:
The post Intelligent Bacteria: Cells are Incredibly Smart appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
The UK Magazine Front Line Genomics ran a story on Evolution 2.0, interviewing me along with judges George Church of Harvard / MIT, Michael Ruse of Florida State University, and Denis Noble of Oxford: $5 Million Tech Prize Seeks Answer to Origin of Life
The post Frontline Genomics Story on the Evolution 2.0 Prize appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
I appeared on WTVR’s “Good Morning Virginia” talking about Evolution 2.0:
The post Evolution 2.0 on CBS 6, Richmond Virginia station WTVR appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Mitchell Hackerman asked a GREAT question:
"So you wrote the book Evolution 2.0 and want to know of a code that wasn't developed by Intelligence? Well, there's no way to prove either way...
The post Can Anybody Actually Win The Evolution 2.0 Prize? appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
There are two kinds of evolution:
1) There's the version that you read about in the bookstore. It's two-thirds science fiction.
2) Then there's the version that PhD biologists, cancer researchers and genetic engineers use to do their jobs.
The two are entirely different.
Popular books tell you evolution works like this:
The post Evolution: The Untold Story, Part 1 appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
I got this question from John: Perry, I am a former Christian turned deist. I could not believe in the god of the Bible because of the Bible’s flaws and because of morality problems with how the Old Testament Yahweh is portrayed but I could not give up my belief that an Intelligence had to...
The post Isn’t a Deist God a little less troublesome? appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Don Muncie asks a great question: How is your fundamental argument different from the classical teleological argument? Answer: In Paley’s watch argument, the analogy between a watch and a living organism was unclear. However, the definition of code in biology and its definition in computer science (Claude Shannon) are identical. Paley tried to force you...
The post Teleological Argument for the Existence of God? appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
I have a New Years Resolution for 2018, inspired by a recent blog comment. Yesterday, a reader of this blog indicated that he was not interested in reading Evolution 2.0. Then he posted six very long blog comments that contained 20, maybe 40 questions. I responded: “Most of your questions are answered in Evolution 2.0....
The post My New Years Resolution for 2018 appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Omar Johnson watched my brother Bryan’s video “From Missionary to Almost-Atheist to Present Day” and posted this great comment: I found Bryan’s (anti?) testimony both engaging and moving. I also have rejected my fundamentalist upbringing, but I will give the Ken Hams of the world this: “Inerrant” Bible Christian apologetics only needs to deal with...
The post Which is worse: Tyrannosaurus Rex? or Satan? appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
The opening shot of my book Evolution 2.0 is an argument between me and my brother about evolution. Bryan had been a missionary in China, but in four years he went from right-wing Christian seminary grad to almost atheist. He was dragging me with him. I wasn’t enjoying it, but I knew I had to...
The post Bryan’s Story: From Missionary to Almost Atheist to Present Day appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
The other day I was sitting across the table from a retired missionary couple. They were eating their lunch and we were discussing evolution. They were Young Earth Creationists. I took up the challenge of trying to persuade them that maybe there is some goodness to be found in evolution after all. The guy said,...
The post If you feel like “Evolution” is a 4-Letter Word… Read This appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Referred to as “Science’s Unruly Earth Mother”, a “vindicated heretic”and a “scientific rebel”, Lynn Margulis was an American evolutionary theorist, biologist, and science author. She was the primary modern proponent for symbiosis in evolution. Throughout her career, Margulis’ work aroused intense objection (one grant application elicited the response, “Your research is crap, do not bother...
The post Lynn Margulis: A Vindicated Heretic’s Unwavering Confidence, from Rejection to the Library of Congress. appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Academic, author and musician, Ray Noble has been a vocalist in Jazz and Blues groups performing at the Edinburgh Fringe and was lead vocalist in the Oxford based rock band, The HeartBeats. He’s a lead vocalist in The Oxford Trobadors and has appeared on radio and television in the UK and abroad. Ray is the...
The post Poking Holes in Universe Age and Other Theories with Ray Noble appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Reader Paul Jervis, reacting to a news story in American Entrepreneurship about my $5 Million Evolution 2.0 Prize, asked: “Got your hypothesis peer reviewed yet?” A peppering of snarky remarks followed. Giving my cynical subscriber the benefit of the doubt, I replied: “I was tempted to just ban you from the Facebook page. But it occurred...
The post “Got your hypothesis peer reviewed yet???” (say it out loud in a sneering, mocking tone of voice) appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
J. Scott Turner is a professor, biologist, and physiologist whose tireless work concludes that Modern Darwinism has failed in a big way. After countless decades, we are at a scientific dead-end still unable to clearly define what LIFE is. Turner says, that only after Modern Darwinists surrender their materialist and mechanistic biases, and acknowledge the...
The post How Darwinism Sucked the True Power out of Biology appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Simple Programmer (Jon Sonmez) partners up with Denis Noble to discuss about the theory of beliefs and how there is much more to that than what we already know. Biology is not what we think we know and, more and more, the scientific community is starting to see more evidence about it. Denis Noble (born...
The post Change Your Beliefs with the Power of Biology and Improve Your Skills: Denis Noble Interview appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Blog comment from a reader: The first living things on Earth, single-celled micro-organisms or microbes lacking a cell nucleus or cell membrane known as prokaryotes, first appeared on Earth almost four billion years ago. After a hundred thousand years or more of evolution and natural selection, these early forms became more and more complex, eventually...
The post Origin of Life: Has Anybody Solved It? appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
You don’t have to keep your opinions silent if you’re willing to listen to others The very open-minded Lucas Rockwood graciously invited me onto his Yoga Talk Show to discuss my reasons for investigating the subject that eventually became Evolution 2.0. Listen to the full audio interview here.. EPISODE 271: What Darwin Got Wrong with...
The post Yoga Talk Show – What Darwin Got Wrong appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Purpose & Desire: What Makes Something “Alive” and Why Modern Darwinism Has Failed to Explain It is yet another in a line of PRO-evolution books by highly credible, mainstream biologists who are stepping forward and insisting that The Emperor really does have No Clothes. Turner is not in any way, shape or form opposed to...
The post Purpose & Desire by J. Scott Turner – Book Review appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
If DNA is exquisitely programmed, why is there death and disease? Brendan asks on my blog: You say DNA is like a computer program or language. But if it is, surely its not a very good one? It has so many bugs! Diseases and cancer, mental problems, so many horrid things. If we can debug...
The post Why Death and Disease? appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
On April 22 2017, Jonathan McLatchie was kind enough to host me on his Apologetics Academy video livecast. We enjoyed a lively discussion about Evolution 2.0. Generally, Jonathan and his audience were skeptical of macro-evolution and common descent. We discussed what Intelligent Design is, and what it is not; and how ID relates to evolution....
The post Do Epigenetic Changes Become Hard-Coded? appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
A man is charged with first degree murder. His attorney agrees the man committed the crime… but argues that the killer is innocent because wasn’t in control of his own actions. That the killing was a result of him being, as Richard Dawkins argues in The Selfish Gene, a lumbering robot programmed by his genes....
The post Who is in control? YOU? Or your Genes? appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
The joint meeting of the Royal Society and the British Academy of Science, New trends in evolutionary biology: biological, philosophical and social science perspectives was a rematch of sorts. The two sides had already exchanged views in a 2014 Nature Comment, “Does evolutionary theory need a rethink? Researchers are divided over what processes should be...
The post An Evolutionary Signpost is Needed – Guest Post by James MacAllister appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
I got this question from an inquisitive reader: I’m wrestling with some essential Jerry Coyne here. I figure this is pretty fundamental and therefore worth my taking the time to understand better. Coyne says: What we mean by “random” is that mutations occur regardless of whether they would be good for the organism. That is,...
The post Jerry Coyne Evades Evolution 2.0 appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
FRANCIS COLLINS, U.S. DIRECTOR OF THE HUMAN GENOME PROJECT: “Will we turn our backs on science because it is perceived as a threat to God, abandoning all the promise of advancing our understanding of nature and applying that to the alleviation of suffering and the betterment of humankind? “Alternatively, will we turn our backs on...
The post Francis Collins on Faith vs. Science appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
“At the time of this writing, the biologist Craig Venter is engaging in the creation of artificial life. He conducted experiments and stated them in a famous paper titled “Creation of a Bacterial Cell Controlled by a Chemically Synthesized Genome.” “I have an immense respect for Craig Venter, whom I consider one of the smartest...
The post Nassim Nicholas Taleb on Synthetic Life appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
“A forest is much more than what you see,” says ecologist Suzanne Simard. Her 30 years of research in Canadian forests have led to an astounding discovery — trees talk, often and over vast distances. Learn more about the harmonious yet complicated social lives of trees and prepare to see the natural world with new...
The post How Trees Talk To Each Other – Suzanne Simard appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
I got this astute blog comment from Frank Morris: “I was so impressed by your debate with Stephen Meyer that I finally bought your Evolution 2.0 book. I can’t wait to read it to see how it compares with my own journey getting kicked around by hostile Darwinians on blogs as I continued to question...
The post Is Intelligent Design really just Old Earth Creationism? appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
“The universe really is “inspirational matter,” we now know, and is not merely inert. Now we might call it instinct, evolution, nuclear fusion, DNA, hardwiring, the motherboard, healing, growth, or just springtime, but nature clearly continues to renew itself from within. “God seems to have created things that continue to create and recreate themselves from...
The post Richard Rohr on Evolution appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
I had a great exchange with a gentleman, Matthew Taylor, on the Unbelievable discussion board, following my debate with Stephen Meyer. Matthew said: I was intrigued by the suggestion by one of the guests that cells might have some form of intelligence. I’d like to know what experiments and tests have been proposed so that...
The post Are Cells Intelligent? appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Issue Neo-Darwinism Intelligent Design Evolution 2.0 (a.k.a. Third Way, Extended Synthesis) Origin of Life Presumed to have emerged from random chemical processes Created by an Intelligent Designer Information theory says codes require a designer, or else an undiscovered emergent process that generates codes Speed Gradual Instantaneous events of intervention In real time Sources of Novelty...
The post Darwinism vs. ID vs. Evolution 2.0 appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
After my debate with Stephen Meyer, the Discovery Institute Volleyed back.
The post Truth or Market Share? Intelligent Design vs. Evolution 2.0 appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Why the heck would a bunch of muscle heads want to talk evolution? Simple: because it’s incredibly relevant to every area of our lives, including fitness. I was just featured on the MindPump podcast, to talk about my work on Evolution 2.0, and the Evolution 2.0 Prize. If you’re not into fitness, you may never...
The post DNA, Fitness, Evolution: Perry Marshall flexes mental muscles on muscle head podcast appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
In 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door in Wittenberg, Germany and started a revolution. Seven years ago I wrote a piece called “The Iron Curtain of 2010”. There, I predicted that Darwinism would crack in ~2013. That there would be some Berlin Wall tipping-point event. Well, I was a little early….but...
The post The Iron Curtain of Biology, Junk DNA, and the Protestant Reformation appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
It was the Protestant Reformation of evolutionary biology - with Denis Noble playing the part of Martin Luther. He nailed his 95 theses to the wall in London and evolution will never be the same.
The post The Protestant Reformation of Evolutionary Biology? appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Stuart Norey posted this insightful comment on my blog: I am not going to argue for or against any sort of God. But I will say this. In the world NOW there are countless examples of evolution happening right now, backed up by sound science. There are no examples of God at work backed up...
The post What kind of God makes an evolutionary universe? appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
The 2016 Evolution Conference at the Royal Society was the Protestant Reformation of Evolutionary Biology. Is this the end of evolution? Or is it a fresh beginning? Stephen Meyer of the Discovery Institute says Intelligent Design just scored a big victory; Perry Marshall punches back with "Third Way" evolution
The post Stephen Meyer Debates Perry Marshall – Intelligent Design vs. Evolution 2.0 appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
I was recently invited by Nicholas Upchurch to appear on his Believe! podcast. We ended up with over an hour of unusual content. Now, here’s why I called this clip “unusual.” There are many theories, models, and hypotheses that Nicholas and I may not agree on. And some of the remote fringes of science that...
The post What Science and the Post Office Have in Common appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Thanks to Mark D. Thompson for posting this helpful blog comment: This issue [re: “Memo to Dawkins & friends: Recess Is OVER”] was also debated in a Nature article in terms of niche construction: http://www.nature.com/news/does-evolutionary-theory-need-a-rethink-1.16080 Richard Dawkins has been out of date since the day that he published the Selfish Gene. I admire his writing...
The post Yes, Richard Dawkins is Obsolete appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
By day, Jason Vidaurri is a mild-mannered chemical engineer of about 16 years, whose day job consists of delving into the intricacies of turning raw materials into useful, everyday products. A perfectly respectable role for a man of his education and experience. Outside of work (and likely unbeknownst to his coworkers), Jason is the engineer...
The post For Those of You Ready to Chuck Your Faith Out the Window appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
James MacAllister is the volunteer archivist for the Lynn Margulis archive at the University of Massachussetts-Amherst. Jim runs envevo.org, the Environmental Evolution website. Lynn Margulis was the champion of Symbiogenesis theory. She fought tremendous opposition from Neo-Darwinists to get the theory accepted. Today she is widely regarded as one of the greatest evolutionary biologists of...
The post The Royal Society’s Evolution Meeting: James MacAllister / Why Neo-Darwinism was the Biggest Mistake in the History of Science appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
World-class heart researcher Denis Noble demolishes the “Selfish Gene” – With Grace and Wit Just as modern astronomy has shown us there is no definite “center of the universe” (and it is most certainly not the earth), in his book “Dance to the Tune of Life: Biological Relativity,” Oxford Professor Denis Noble shows that in...
The post Dance to the Tune of Life: Biological Relativity – Book Review appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Is evolution a “red in tooth and claw” war of survival of the fittest? Or is it cooperative? Is evolution slow and accidental? Or rapid and strategic? Enjoy this video about real-time Symbiosis by John Perry of Stated Clearly.
The post Evolution: “Red in Tooth and Claw”? or Cooperative? appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
At the age of 6, I loved my family, my dog, my Lord Jesus, awesome flying kicks and Ankylosaurus. At the age of 6, this was considered perfectly normal and no one batted an eyelid. At the age of 12, I was told I could love four of those five things, but when it came...
The post From Creationist to Atheist to Reasonable Faith appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Between North and South Korea there’s a “DMZ,” a De-Militarized Zone. A strip of land a couple of miles wide. A buffer between the two sides. A place where people from both sides can go… and not get shot. The DMZ has a number of buildings for peace talks between the two sides. Evolution 2.0...
The post Welcome to the DMZ: The Creation-Evolution De-Militarized Zone appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
To scientists, God-of-gaps arguments give them and their profession the finger. Many religious people have a hard time understanding this.
The post From “God Of The Gaps” to “Let’s Get This Thing Solved!” appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Can evolution’s woes be solved with stitches and Novocaine? Or does it need full anesthesia and a heart transplant?
The post Royal Society’s “New Trends in Biological Evolution” – A Bloodless Revolution appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
There’s more to life than just atoms and molecules. And it’s the biggest untold story in the history of science. Philip Comella is an attorney with a philosophy background and author of the book “The End of Materialism.” On his podcast “Conversations Beyond Science and Religion” Philip and Perry discuss the untold evolution story –...
The post Conversations Beyond Science and Religion: Evolution 2.0 interview with Philip Comella appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
John Sonmez is a code geek if there ever was one.
John recently interviewed me after reviewing my Evolution 2.0 book. We cut right to the chase and got into
The post Geeking on code, DNA and Starbucks with author John Somnez appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
I was raised a Young Earth Creationist. Were you? WANTED: Stories of people who lost or almost lost faith – and only came back because they realized… There’s more than one way to read Genesis! I’d love to feature your story here on my blog. Post a short version in the comments below and if...
The post Wanted: “I was a Young Earth Creationist” Stories appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Genesis 1:24-25 (NASB): Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind”; and it was so. God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground...
The post Anti-Evolution is Anti-Bible appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
When you confront bacteria with antibiotics, they actively seek to adapt and survive. They begin editing their DNA, causing mutation rates to skyrocket. The rate of DNA changes suddenly ramps up to 100,000X normal speed. Watch this time-lapse video by Harvard Medical School. It only takes two weeks for these bacteria to develop 1000X resistance!...
The post Witness Bacteria Evolve in Real Time appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Evolution 2.0 is the cell’s capacity to adapt and to generate new features and new species - by engineering its own genetics in real time. This is based on 100 years of experiments which the public has heard little about. Evolution 2.0 recognizes that neither “side” is telling you the truth.
The post What Is Evolution 2.0? appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
I got a provocative blog comment from Young Earth Creationist B. A. Christian: Question: Do we need “Special Knowledge” in this case brought in from something called science to rightly interpret the passages? Or does it mean what it says? Is death the hero of the plot or the last enemy? Does consensus of geologists,...
The post Young Earth Creation vs. Old Earth Creation appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
What happens when you are FORCED to evolve? A conversation with a business customer puzzled by Evolution 2.0 leaves some clues about Symbiogenesis:
The post Symbiogenesis of Cells, Businesses & Entrepreneurs appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
An elegant solution to an old problem: The Six Days of Genesis from Sarah Salviander
The post Bible and Science, Reconciled appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
John Hands Lifts the Skirt of Modern Science, Revealing Cellulite, Varicose Veins, Scars and Blemishes I once complained to an eminent professor at a prestigious university: “Everybody here is miles deep in some incredibly specialized topic. Nobody seems to be about the big picture.” “Exactly,” he said. Cosmo Sapiens is one of those rare books...
The post Book Review: Cosmosapiens by John Hands appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
If you were studying computers today… Would you start with the 1984 “Apple II Plus Troubleshooting and Repair Manual”? Then… why would you learn evolution by reading Richard Dawkins and Bill Nye? Dawkins’ books on evolution – like those of his pals Bill Nye, Jerry Coyne and others – are every bit as outdated as...
The post Memo To Richard Dawkins, Bill Nye, Jerry Coyne & PZ Myers: Recess is OVER appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Some people think evolution is a myth. Others insist it happens randomly and accidentally, and takes very long. Watch this bacterium evolve in real time and repair damage in a single weekend:
The post Bacteria evolve over a weekend appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
I grew up in an ultra-conservative, 4 1/2 point Calvinist, expository Bible teaching church. When I was in high school, my church in Lincoln Nebraska brought in a special speaker, the Young Earth Creationist and Bible teacher John C. Whitcomb. He gave a series of talks about science and the Bible. It was FASCINATING. Ten...
The post Why I am Not a Young Earth Creationist appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Revolutionary scientific paradigms were first opposed with great force. Gregor Mendel’s genetics was ignored for 20+ years. Ignaz Semmelweis was thrown out of the Vienna General Hospital for insisting that hand-washing could stop fatal childbirth infections. His colleagues mocked him for suggesting there might be critters so tiny you can’t even see them, multiplying right...
The post The Most Troubled Theory in the History of Science – And why The Darwinian Cancer is Terminal This Time Around appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
The now-famous Wistar evolution conference took place exactly 50 years ago at the University of Pennsylvania. An all-star panel of mathematicians, biologists and engineers debated the merits of Neo-Darwinism… based on MATH. The verdict: The engineers and mathematicians said, “No way Jose.” The biologists said, “You guys are ignorant. You don’t understand.” OK, it wasn’t...
The post Evolution Fist Fight at the Wistar Institute appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
What if evolution were true, but it wasn't quite like Darwin said?
What if there were a new evolutionary model that could explain why fossils show almost no change for millions of years.... then suddenly the Cambrian Explosion: Thousands of new species emerge intact, virtually overnight.
What this new theory pointed the way to new innovations in artificial intelligence and adaptive computer programs?
What if "Evolution vs. Design" wasn't an either/or proposition - but both+and?
What if, instead of arguing endlessly about fossils, we could precisely track evolutionary history with the precision of 1's and 0's?
The post A New Theory of Evolution appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Charles Darwin believed behaviors a parent learned during his or her lifetime could be passed to children. Many scientists of the time believed that. It was called “Lamarckism” after Lamarck who first proposed the theory. Later, the Neo-Darwinists laughed Lamarckism right out of the academy. “Silly Lamarck, he didn’t know that DNA mutations are all...
The post Even Darwinists thought Darwin was crazy about this one… appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Have you ever thought about WHY you have to take the entire bottle of antibiotics every time you get a sinus infection? Because a regular ole’ bug can become a SUPERBUG in about 10 minutes. Unless you napalm the bacteria wreaking havoc on your immune system into oblivion, the tiny little bastards will come back...
The post Superbugs: Kaizen, Quantum Leaps, And Penicillin appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Mother Nature has some pretty stunning capabilities. One of them is the ability of two species to combine and make a stronger hybrid. One such merger is the marriage of fungi and algae to make: Lichen. Lichen can make its own food by way of photosynthesis thanks to algae AND protection from the environment through...
The post The Exquisite Merger-Acquisitions of Mother Nature appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
I got this missive from Charlie Richardson… “Some fundamentalist churches equate doctrinal non-conformity with “not walking with Christ.” So for a lot of folks your idea of “evolving your interpretation” of Scripture, based on science, is anathema and the liberal slippery slope to hell. I know this from firsthand experience. Extreme fundamentalism of any sort...
The post “Kids don’t like being lied to.” appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
One of the most appealing aspects of Young Earth Creationism is, it offers a simple, trouble-free view of God. “God made everything perfect. It was just us HUMANS who messed everything up. It’s all OUR fault.” Reader Daniel, a Christian, asked: “I have to say you have a very interesting take on the Bible then....
The post Did God Create Evil and Suffering? appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Long-time blog follower “Old Git Tom” poked the beast with this comment: “It is preposterous to call Darwin’s Natural Selection (NS) theory of bio-evolution ‘successful’. It remains a failed hypothesis. It was never even a valid scientific one. It is a tautology; it it is self-reinforcing, circular. The NS merry-go-round goes this way: 1. Fitness...
The post Circular Logic & Natural Selection appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
An interesting article blurb: “A minimal cell is usually defined as a cell in which all genes are essential. This definition is incomplete, because the genetic requirements for survival, and therefore the minimal genome size, depend on the environment in which the cell is grown. The work described here has been conducted in medium that...
The post How Simple is the Simplest Cell? appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Last week I skewered Richard Dawkins for saying life was a “happy chemical accident” on National Public Radio. A reader of my blog (a smart, well educated guy) rushed to Dawkins’ defense. I demanded he explain how “happy chemical accident” qualifies as science. My reader retorts: “Oh, I forgot NPR interviews are venues for rigid,...
The post “Not only has Dawkins ruined science. He’s ruined atheism too.” appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Ken Ham is an excellent marketer and salesperson for Young Earth Creationism. I should know — much of my professional background is in marketing, working with some of the most talented marketers and sales people on the planet. I got the chance to hear Ken Ham. He was speaking at a home schooling conference my...
The post Young Earth Creationists killing Christian credibility? appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
The Atheist agenda is destroying our understanding of evolution. The truth is far more exciting. Modern Atheism (with a capital “A”) wants you to believe evolution is random, chaotic, accidental. According to Atheists, we’re all mutant mistakes of DNA copying errors. And in the statistically-impossible chance that our particular mutations lead to us making more...
The post Why Evolution is NOT Blind, Purposeless, and Depressing appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
I have plenty of atheists friends whom I get along with just fine. If you look at all the scientific data out there… What we know about genetics… What we know about the origin of life… All we know about the birth of the universe… How life changes and evolves… Where humans came from, and...
The post Richard Dawkins dogma destroying science… appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Anybody who's developed a modicum of chops with Google ads knows how utterly Darwinian Google is. Most of your ads plumber_google_advanish forever after being seen by (maybe) a few thousand eyeballs.
1% of the advertisers get 50% of the traffic. Everyone else fights over the scraps. And every ounce of your AdWords education costs you money.
As an advertiser, you know
The post Google AdWords vs. Charles Darwin appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
An Amazon reader named Gordon loves Evolution 2.0, but then asks:
The post “You got a beef with Stephen Meyer and William Dembski?” appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Newsweek article “The Secrets of the Human Cell” explains: "Each of those 100 trillion cells functions like a walled city. Power plants generate the cell’s energy. Factories produce proteins, vital units of chemical commerce. Complex transportation systems guide specific chemicals from point to point within the cell and beyond...
The post Cells Make Decisions as Members of a Superbly Organized Army appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
The legendary atheist and evolutionary theorist Richard Dawkins debated Design advocate George Gilder on WBUR, Boston’s National Public Radio affiliate.
Dawkins was...
The post Where life came from, according to Richard Dawkins appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Recently an Evolution 2.0 reader reached out to me. He had done deep study of the linguistics of DNA.
Because I had briefly mentioned designing speakers and stereo equipment in chapter 3 of my book, he sent a photo of a some speakers he’d built.
He had no idea I also built a system that was spooky similar. Same design idea. Same ribbon drivers from the same boutique German manufacturer. I sent him back some pictures. We both got a chuckle from this “needles in haystacks” meeting in such an unlikely context.
The post Signals vs. Noise appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Is Evolution Compatible With The Bible? Can you be a Christian and believe in evolution? Some say: “If God chose to create us via evolution, I’m fine with that.”
Others see evolution as a threat… with grave theological difficulties: The nature of man, original sin, the necessity of Christ. Some insist evolution undercuts...
The post Is Evolution Biblical? appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
God, Science and the Universe: A Dialogue at the University of Toronto on Saturday, March 19, 7-9pm EDT. Three big thinkers, well-known in their various fields, will be together for the first time on the stage at the University of Toronto’s Convocation Hall discussing God, science and the universe: Lawrence M. Krauss World-renowned Theoretical Physicist...
The post EVENT: 3 Big Thinkers Discuss God, Science, and the Universe appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Today I searched Google News for “evolution of” to see how it gets used. Titles of headlines included:
The post Evolution of Evolution appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Richard Dawkins is the world-famous science entertainer who masquerades as a scientist. Today, a shining example of how he uses sleight of hand to fool gullible people and build his tribe.
The post Cheating The Salem Hypothesis appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Doug asked me: Do you believe that these same processes which create (what you refer to as) “new species” are also capable of creating new genera, families, orders, classes, phyla and kingdoms?
If so, how?
The post Darwinists Underestimate Nature. Creationists Underestimate God. appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Angel was 82 pounds and dropping fast. This normally attractive, athletic woman was down to skin and bones. Waging war with an eating disorder - and losing. Her husband Bob was scared. Laura and I were scared for her. Ribs sticking out of her skin. She wore baggy sweaters, her breasts sagged and she was perpetually cold.
The post Telorexia – Blind to Purpose in Nature appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
A rocket scientist/engineer and an ER physician/pastor talk with Perry about the big questions of God and life.
god-talk
In this episode, Perry tells the story of rigid Young Earth theol0gy and strict literalism that jettisoned Perry's brother from faith, and Perry's trip down the rabbit hole of evolutionary science.
The post God Talk Podcast – Doug Thorpe & Andrew Wyant Discuss “Evolution 2.0” appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Michael Flannery reviewed Evolution 2.0. I replied in "ID's Blind Spot." Michael then responded to my post in his comment #36.
Thank you, Michael, for your thoughtful remarks. Below are Michael’s questions in bold with my answers:
You seem to presume a lot about what “practicing scientists” hear and what ...
The post Intelligent Design’s Blind Spot, Part 2 appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
I’m grateful for Michael Flannery’s less-than-favorable review of Evolution 2.0, because his review – and blind spots – exemplify why Intelligent Design, as promoted by the Discovery Institute, gets a black eye in higher education.black_eye_punch_mike_nelson_e
I’m not certain ID people understand how ID is perceived by the outside world – especially among practicing professional scientists.
Intelligent Design most certainly...
The post Intelligent Design’s Blind Spot appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
PZ Myers responded to my annotated transcript of our debate. If one only reads PZ’s blog, skips past my transcript and doesn’t read Barbara McClintock’s work, one might form the impression that he gave that poor naïve engineer Perry Marshall a sound thrashing.
In actuality...
The post Memo To PZ Myers: Damage is Random. Repair is Not. appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
I don’t knowtv_snow_sm
I don’t care
Can we go to lunch now
POOF!
The post Synonyms for Random appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
In a recent debate with a prominent old-school Darwinist, my rival asserted that “90 percent of our DNA is junk.”
I insist very little of it is junk. I have no doubt some is broken, corrupted, redundant or whatever - but if...
The post The 80/20 of “Junk DNA” appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Atheist PZ Myers Debates Perry Marshall - Darwinism vs. Perry's new book "Evolution 2.0: Breaking the Deadlock Between Darwin and Design" on “Unbelievable?” with Justin Brierley
The post PZ Myers – Perry Marshall Debate Evolution on Podcast appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Kevin Cobb posted a great comment on the blog:
Saying that the existence of information is proof of the existence of God is like saying that the fact that we see 7 colors is proof that 7 is a spiritually significant number...
The post Atheist-Creationist Denial Syndrome appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species had an unfortunate title. It was a great book for its time, and is roughly correct about what evolution looks like in the rear-view mirror. Though if you want to know how we actually get a new species, the explanation in there is very incomplete, at best. Natural selection...
The post Charles Darwin debunked in 1940s by incredible woman geneticist? appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
The atheist community has become as dogmatic as the religions they attack. Internationally famous atheist Jerry Coyne heard about the publication of my book, Evolution 2.0. And he decided to write a review… After ONLY reading the Amazon.com book description. The gist of his review? “Move along folks, nothing to see here.” He couldn’t bear...
The post Dogmatic Darwinist Jerry Coyne “reviews” my book — Evolution 2.0 — here’s my response! appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
(Warning: This flies in the face of the mainstream understanding of Evolution from the likes of Richard Dawkins, Jerry Coyne, Bill Nye, and others.) I made sure my fight with atheists would be the opposite of a political debate. In the average political debate, the candidates take soft-pitch questions from friendly moderators, and easily get...
The post How I argued with atheists to develop the Evolution 2.0 theory… appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
My brother and I grew up Creationists. He went to China to do missionary work, and within 4 years became a card-carrying Atheist.
This bugged me. We fought.
[embed]https://youtu.be/-0D3IAWpwco[/embed]
The post Evolution Debate: How I Almost Became An Atheist appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
I’ve been debating Derrick Rohe and Dan Listermann on Facebook. My challenge to them: “Show me evidence that random mutations produce beneficial evolutionary events. New features, new organs, better adaptations.” They can’t.
The post Random Mutations? Cut To The Chase appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
I got in a Facebook tussle with reader Frank Pettit about Larry Moran. This revealed even more fraud in evolution than I had even realized. Brace yourself.
In part one I criticized Larry Moran for being a lazy evangelist of Old School Darwinism. What is “Old School Darwinism”? Moran’s article “Evolution By Accident” describes it perfectly.
The post Larry Moran and the 3 Martini Lunch, part 2: Massive Evolution Fraud appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
First, a confession: I am no fan of Larry Moran. He’s an evangelist of old-school Darwinism, which is rapidly being obsoleted by larry_moranSystems Biology.
Moran’s strident promotion of the now-discredited “Junk DNA” theory alone should give all of us pause. The man is still trying to save Junk DNA from extinction. (The ENCODE project killed it dead three years ago.) PREDICTION: Ten years from now, when we understand twice as much about the genome as we do now, most scientists will be reluctant to admit they ever entertained such anti-scientific superstitions.
Well lately Moran is in a gladiator fight with Ann Gauger of the Discovery Institute. And he makes a valid point. Moran says:
The post Larry Moran, Intelligent Design, and the Three Martini Lunch appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
“Another source of conviction in the existence of God, connected with the reason and not with the feelings, impresses me as having much more weight. This follows from the extreme difficulty or rather impossibility of conceiving this immense and wondrous universe, including man with his capacity of looking backwards and far into futurity, as a...
The post Did Charles Darwin Believe in God? appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Subscriber Les asks: Perry, I did read your book. What is God’s role in the model of evolution that you propose? Is he just the designer of the laws of nature according to which life originates by chance and then evolves in an unguided manner? Do you believe that God interferes into his creation by...
The post “OK, So Where is God in All of This?” appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Jerry Coyne, Biology Professor at the University of Chicago, reviewed my new book Evolution 2.0: Breaking the Deadlock Between Darwin and Design. He said:
“Although I haven’t read it...
The post Skeptic Jerry Coyne trashes “Evolution 2.0” – without even reading it first! appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
My brother Bryan (VERY smart) insisted that if you had billions of falcons over millions of years, nature was so prolific that all you would actually need was the occasional copying error. Not only would you get falcons…. you would get better and better falcons! Mutations would inevitably happen. Vision would improve. Wings would improve,...
The post Down the evolutionary rabbit hole I go – Part 2 of Decoding Evolution appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Bryan was backing me into a corner and I didn’t like it. We were riding a bus in southwest Asia near Viet Nam. Bryan had moved there 4 years before. He was half English teacher, half missionary. A few months before he’d bailed on the missionary part. Not only was he no longer a missionary,...
The post Part 1: Decoding Evolution appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Richard Dawkins the famous atheist said that. In poker, a "tell" is a signal that your opponent is lying and he knows it.
The post “Biology is the study of things that appear to be designed.” appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Perry Marshall’s talk to high school students at One Day Enrichment for T.E.A.C.H. (The Evangelical Alliance of Christian Homeschoolers) in Oak Park Illinois, March 20, 2015. Perry is author of Evolution 2.0: Breaking the Deadlock Between Darwin and Design published by BenBella. -Preparing home schoolers for college science, and the critical moment: “Hey wait...
The post Home School – Old Earth vs. Young Earth & Atheism appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Recently I gave an evolution presentation to a conservative Christian home school group. The organizers were besieged beforehand with emails from concerned parents, wondering what I was about to teach their kids. But afterwards, nothing but gratitude. An eager group of parents and kids stayed for two hours after, peppering me with questions. * How...
The post Home School – Creation – Evolution appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Evolution in 140 characters or less: Genes switch on, switch off, rearrange and exchange. Hybrids double; viruses hijack; cells merge; winners emerge.
The post Evolution in 140 Characters or Less appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
“Atheism too denies religion. It loves iconoclasm, the refutation of dogmas and moral emancipation. Its whole interest is in denial as such. Atheism is for this reason always artless. It fails to see that absolute denial has no meaning except against the background of a relative affirmation. Atheism lives by its negation and therefore is...
The post Karl Barth on Atheism appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
One day at work my boss Fred pulled me aside. Fred was NOT a happy camper:
"Perry, what did you say to the customer yesterday?"
Oh-oh. Must've done something wrong.
The post Junk DNA & My Foot-In-Mouth moment appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Let's give Larry Moran the benefit of the doubt. Let's say 90% of our DNA really is junk....
The post The absolute friggin’ MIRACLE of “Junk DNA” appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Inert matter just sits around minding its own business until physical laws act on it, disturbing its eternal siesta. Inert matter just wants to go on an all-expenses paid, eternal, one-way entropy trip.
Why can't DNA just lie back and enjoy the show like all the other molecules?
The post Communication: Guest Blog by Richard Morgan appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
"On the whole, people are not unbelieving. Some people will believe anything, provided it is not in the Bible! Astrology, UFOs, fortune telling, luck, charms, and a thousand superstitions are as common in the university college as the housewife’s kitchen. Gullibility has never been so high.
The post Everybody has faith appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Em 1931, Kurt Gödel desferiu um golpe devastador nos matemáticos de sua época Em 1931, o jovem matemático Kurt Gödel fez uma descoberta-marco, tão poderosa quanto qualquer coisa que Albert Einstein desenvolveu. A descoberta de Gödel não se aplica somente à matemática, mas literalmente a todos os ramos da ciência, lógica e conhecimento humano....
The post O Teorema da Incompletude de Gödel: A Descoberta Matemática Nº 1 do Século XX appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Whenever you're having a discussion about God and science, someone will say, "There's no possible way that "X" could have happened all by itself, therefore there is a creator."
Invariably you hear this retort:
"Aw, that's just a god-of-the-gaps argument."
The post The “God of the Gaps” Paradox appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
I had a conversation with a guy who explains why he rejects Common Descent:
The post “I don’t believe in evolution because there are so few transitional forms.” appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
HUNTSVILLE ALABAMA - NASA has announced their choice of evolutionary biologist, Dr Richard Dawkins to head the team that will be studying and analysing the UFO that landed intact in the Arizona desert six months ago.
Why Professor Dawkins?
The post Atheist Richard Dawkins Appointed to Investigate UFO’s appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Alexander Tsiaras is an artist and technologist. His work explores the unseen human body, developing visualization software that enables him to "paint" the human anatomy:
The post Conception to birth, visualized appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
"There are two kinds of truth: the truth that lights the way and the truth that warms the heart. The first of these is science, and the second is art. Neither is...
The post Science Without Art; Art Without Science appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
The first book to explain how evolution actually works has now been written.
What most people think they know about evolution is 30 to 70 years out of date. The most popular books (even recent ones by very famous authors), sound as though the last five decades of scientific research never happened.
That's a tall claim, I know. But James Shapiro's new book "Evolution: A View From the 21st Century" is the first to spell it all out.
The post James Shapiro – Evolution: A View from the 21st Century (Book Review) appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Meet my very special guest, Mr. Richard Morgan. For 25 years he was a card-carrying atheist and flaming Richard Dawkins fan. Born in the UK, living in France, he came to Chicago to tell this story.
Richard had a radical conversion experience in 2008. Not only did it rock his world, it incited a riot on the Dawkins Internet discussion board. Despite his mannerly approach, he was soon banished from the forum.
In this video, Richard tells you his strange yet wonderful story.
The post Atheist to Christian: 180 Degrees in 10 Seconds appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
I’ve been corresponding with a professional scientist about randomness in biology. I told him that the Neo-Darwinian paradigm of “random mutation” is dead, and most people just haven’t gotten the memo yet. He asked me to offer citations from the literature showing that evolution is non-random. This is what I sent him: 1. Genomic evolutionary...
The post Are the mutations that drive evolution random? appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
James Shapiro is a leading advocate of "A Third Way" - an alternative solution to the dreary Creationism vs. Darwinism debate. He was friends with the eminent scientist Barbara McClintock who won the Nobel Prize for the discovery of Mobile Genetic Elements.
Shapiro discovered Mobile Genetic Elements in bacteria and in many ways has carried on McClintock's work. In this video, he outlines a half dozen major mechanisms of biological evolution. He also discusses the questions that are raised by 21st century research:
The post James Shapiro Video: Evolution in the 21st Century appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
On Saturday May 7 I'm hosting a free 2-part presentation with Q&A: Evolution, Design and Atheism. It's in Oak Park Illinois 1:30-3:30pm.
You're invited.
The post Radical Atheist Conversion + Evolution 3.0 appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Perry Marshall's Biological Evolution talk at Alcatel-Lucent: Recorded live at Lucent's Corporate Engineering Center, Naperville Illinois, April 14 2011. This is my 3rd biology talk at Lucent. This time I focus on...
The post Evolution in Sharp Focus: Lucent Technologies appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Romans is St. Paul's grand case for Christian theology. It's a bulwark of logic and argument. Every great theologian has written extensively on Romans. Paul offers stern words in the first chapter:
The post Romans 1: Yes, You Can Take It Literally appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Robert Full is a professor at the University of California-Berkeley. He studies cockroach legs and gecko feet. His research is helping build the perfect "distributed foot" for tomorrow's robots, based on nature's engineering.
In this video he describes the remarkable features of insect and animal legs, and shows you a robot built based on these same principles:
The post Engineering Insights of Bugs, Geckos and Robots appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Werner Gitt's book In The Beginning Was Information is superb and provided the initial inspiration for all I have done with Information Theory. I owe Werner Gitt a debt of gratitude for producing one of the most clear and profound science books I've ever read.
The thesis of Gitt's book is that Claude Shannon's information theory directly implies design in biology because the existence of language is always preceded by intelligence. Gitt connects this to John 1:1:
The post TalkOrigins’ Misrepresentations of Werner Gitt and Information Theory appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
For years, scientists believed that the appendix served no purpose, and wondered why it was even present in the human body. Surgeons removed them regularly, and it seemed to have no ill effects on the health of patients.
This has often been held out as proof that evolution is a mindless, unguided process.
The post The Purpose of the Appendix: New Research appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Physicist Richard Feynman was a notorious researcher and blazing personality in the history of science.
He's known for his work on the atomic bomb, for creating a visual representation of subatomic particles, and pioneering work in quantum computing.
My friend Paul Cook sent me this quote by Dr. Feynman:
The post Richard Feynman on Science and Religion appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
"I couldn’t find any referral to the the Craig Venter Institute’s recent achievement.
"Some atheists regard it as another blew to Christianity but in my view it is another scientific achievement that supports Perry’s hypothesis. It proved beyond doubt that DNA is a code . It also proved that DNA is able to code for any type or form of information. It is even able to store the names of the names of the relevant researchers etc...
The post What Craig Venter’s Synthetic Cell Says About the Origins Debate appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
In the 1940's, the eminent scientist Barbara McClintock damaged parts of the DNA in corn maize. To her amazement, the plants could
The post The Mathematics of DNA appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
10 questions the New Atheists have no answer for; A Christian Case for Evolution; Genesis and Symbiogenesis; and a new way of looking at Genesis 1 and 2.
The post The New Atheism, Genesis 2 & Symbiogenesis appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
As an Electrical Engineer I am utterly appalled at the intellectual slop that passes for science in biology. Engineers would lose their jobs in droves if they tolerated the mushy thinking and lack of rigor that is routine in biology.
Today: 7 Urban Legends Biologists Believe…. but an Engineer Would Know Better:
The post 7 Biology Myths No Electrical Engineer Would Ever Tolerate appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Two groups of people insist that Genesis and modern interpretations of science are incompatible: Secularists and Young Earth Creationists. These two camps have done great damage to the credibility of scripture. But today I would like to suggest to you that there's a Third Way.
A modern literal interpretation of Genesis 1 matches modern cosmology, geology and the fossil record... exactly.
The post A Closer Look at Genesis 1 appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
A guy named “SittingOnTheFence” is hovering between belief and non-belief. He asks me some GREAT questions. He says: “The problem is that for every great argument that you make, there are 3 that can be made AGAINST the existence of God. There will really be no way to end this debate EVER. Well, maybe if...
The post “Sitting on the Fence” appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
The Berlin Wall in East Germany fell on November 9, 1989, after 28 years of isolation. When the dominoes of communism began to fall, the speed at which they tumbled was amazing.
Today, Darwinism is in the same place in 2010 as communism was in 1986. It's wheezing like a dying animal. Flailing wildly. Draining limited resources defending itself against attackers. It's barely able to feed its own people, let alone advance useful scientific theories of its own.
The post The Iron Curtain of 2010 appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
In 1931 a landmark discovery was made by the great mathematician Kurt Gödel. It is probably as important as anything Einstein's theory of relativity and quantum mechanics.
It not only applies to mathematics but literally all branches of science and human knowledge. It has truly earth-shattering implications.
Oddly, few people know anything about it.
Allow me to tell you the story.
The post Gödel’s Incompleteness: The #1 Mathematical Breakthrough of the 20th Century appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
A Counterpart to the Anthropic Principle: The Genome Intelligence Principle
In astronomy we have the Anthropic Principle, which is both an observation and a hypothesis that the universe appears to be fine tuned to support life.
I postulate a Genome Intelligence Principle. It is analogous to the Anthropic Principle, as it both observes and presupposes a higher level of order than mere laws of physics or chance would allow.
The post Testable Hypothesis for Intelligent Design, Pt 4 appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Earlier I proposed that evolution is driven by a "Mutation Algorithm." I said the Mutation Algorithm is the highest software layer in DNA and it explores evolutionary pathways by testing new features (fur, skin patterns, claws, limbs, wings) like switching out blades on a Swiss Army Knife.
I explained why Junk DNA is one of the most backwards theories in the history of modern science.
I said that the "random mutation" theory of evolution is an anti-scientific proposal which fails to presume underlying order and teaches us nothing.
Today I continue with the implications of turning Darwinism on its head and assuming DNA operates top-down not bottom-up:
The post Testable Hypothesis for Intelligent Design, Pt 3 appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
I recently joined atheist Peter Hearty in a UK radio debate on the origin of life.
This was broadcast on the British radio programme "Unbelievable."
The post Origin of life debate, the English Way appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
3% of our DNA codes for proteins. For many years nobody knew what the other 97% was for.
Since the 1970's, that other 97% that wasn't understood has been called "Junk DNA."
(If I only had a dollar for every guy who has sent me an email that said, "OK Perry, then if DNA is designed how come 97% of my DNA is junk? Huh? Answer me that!!!")
Today's hypothesis is very simple:
The post Testable Hypothesis for Intelligent Design, Pt 2 appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
A common misconception is that Evolution and Intelligent Design is an either/or proposition.
Today I'm going to tie the two together in an elegant way and show that they compliment each other beautifully.
A common criticism of Intelligent Design is that it produces no testable hypothesis.
Today I'm going to lay that accusation firmly to rest with a whole series of predictions about what evolution research will show us in the next 3 to 20 years.
The post Testable Hypothesis for Intelligent Design, Part 1 appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
In June 2005 I delivered my lecture "If you can read this I can prove God exists" and posted it on my website.
Today, I have to thank a brotherhood of evangelical atheists for making it world-famous.
The post The most famous, passionately argued, longest-running debate appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
In July 1948, Claude Shannon of Bell Labs published his seminal paper "A Mathematical Theory of Communication." This is THE definitive work on engineering communication theory. It laid the groundwork for the information age we live in today.
59 years later, in April 2007, I gave a lecture to 120 engineers at Bell Labs, which is now a division of Alcatel-Lucent Technology in Warrenville, Illinois. These engineers design servers, software, data networks, fiber optic equipment, microwave stations, and devices for cell phone and Internet communication.
These guys tracked perfectly with every point. They knew...
The post My Bell Labs – Lucent Technology Lectures appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
There is a giant chasm in the world that 99% of people never notice.
After today, you will suddenly see that chasm with crystal clarity. From now on, the way you see the entire world will never be the same.
On side 1 of the chasm is:
The post The Atheist’s Riddle, Part 2: Two Kinds of Things & The Infinite Chasm appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
I got a candid question from a reader named Jon:
"I’m curious on how you can see “design” in nature, based on your logic.
How does this line of reasoning explain pain, suffering and natural disasters?
Why design a world that is constantly cooling and erupting with violent events that kill millions of innocent people?
What about our fear of pain and death? If God was real, then he has no fear of death or pain and yet he created beings that must suffer this fate. What does that say about him?
The post Design in the Universe + Evil + Suffering=??? appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
100 years ago, Albert Einstein published three papers that rocked the world. These papers proved the existence of the atom, introduced the
theory of relativity, and described quantum mechanics.
Pretty good debut for a 26 year old scientist, huh?
The post Einstein’s Big Blunder appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
The Big Bang theory was totally rejected at first. But those who supported it had predicted that the ignition of the Big Bang would have left behind a sort of 'hot flash' of radiation.
If a big black wood stove produces heat that you can feel, then in a similar manner, the Big Bang should produce its own kind of heat that would echo throughout the universe.
In 1965, without looking for it, two physicists at Bell Labs in New Jersey found it.
The post “Bird Droppings on my Telescope” appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
If the universe had expanded just a little slower, the material would have dribbled out like big drops of water, then collapsed back where it came from by the force of gravity.
A little too fast, and you get a meaningless spray of fine dust. A little too slow, and the whole universe collapses back into one big black hole.
The surprising thing is just how narrow the difference is. To strike the perfect balance between too fast and too slow, the force, something that physicists call "the Dark Energy Term" had to be accurate to one part in ten with 120 zeros.
The post Why the Big Bang was the most precisely planned event in all of history appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
See this blog post I just wrote, that you're reading right now? This blog article is proof of the existence of God.
The post “If you can read this sentence, I can prove God exists” appeared first on Evolution 2.0.
Today I introduce to you one of the most powerful science presentations I have ever heard.
I listened to Hugh Ross give this presentation on a tape while I was driving down Interstate 88 in Chicago one night. As I listened, light bulbs were firing off in my head all over the place.
So what's the big deal about this? Here's what you'll discover as you listen:
The post New Scientific Evidence for the Existence of God appeared first on Evolution 2.0.