scholarly journals GAIANIZING DARWIN: NATURAL SELECTION IMPAIRS THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PLANETARY TEMPERATURE SELF-REGULATION

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergio Rubin ◽  
Carlos de Castro
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Effective Temperature ◽  
Temperature Regulation ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Physical Processes ◽  
Gaia Hypothesis ◽  
Wide Range

Many neo-Darwinists have rejected the Gaia hypothesis, arguing that organisms cannot reach a common good by natural selection and that natural selection cannot act on the whole planet. In response, Watson and Lovelock put forward a model they called Daisyworld (Dw), a hypothetical planet which can regulate its temperature over a wide range of solar luminosities. This is accomplished by ordinary physical processes rather than by natural selection. As Daisyworld refuted the objections, the critics have responded by developing Darwinian Daisyworlds (DDw) involving natural selection in terms of adaptation, competition, cheating and selfishness. Here we show that the more Darwinian characteristics are added to Dw, the less planetary temperature regulation is attained. Rather, to explain the generation of habitable dynamics on Earth, we propose to Gaianize Darwin by: i) showing that symbiotic coordination of daisies is at stake in the planetary temperature regulation, ii) introducing more efffectively self-regulation Worlds without natural selection, such as Butterflyworld (Bw) and Pandoworld (Pw), iii) intoducing a simple altruistic-like Gaia constraint on daisies that results in a much more effective temperature regulation than the original Dw.

Theory in closer contact with industrial life: American institutional economists on competition theory and policy

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Matthew T. Panhans ◽  
Reinhard Schumacher
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Competition Policy ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Consumer Welfare ◽  
Antitrust Enforcement ◽  
Mainstream Economic ◽  
Competition Theory ◽  
One Stage ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Experimental Attitude

Abstract This paper investigates the views on competition theory and policy of the American institutional economists during the first half of the 20th century. These perspectives contrasted with those of contemporary neoclassical and later mainstream economic approaches. We identify three distinct dimensions to an institutionalist perspective on competition. First, institutionalist approaches focused on describing industry details, so as to bring theory into closer contact with reality. Second, institutionalists emphasized that while competition was sometimes beneficial, it could also be disruptive. Third, institutionalists had a broad view of the objectives of competition policy that extended beyond effects on consumer welfare. Consequently, institutionalists advocated for a wide range of policies to enhance competition, including industrial self-regulation, broad stakeholder representation within corporations, and direct governmental regulations. Their experimental attitude implied that policy would always be evolving, and antitrust enforcement might be only one stage in the development toward a regime of industrial regulation.

scholarly journals Constructor theory of life

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (104) ◽  
pp. 20141226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara Marletto
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Digital Information ◽  
Evolution Theory ◽  
Physical Processes ◽  
Darwinian Theory ◽  
Gene Replication ◽  
Theory Of Information ◽  
Living Organisms

Neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory explains how the appearance of purposive design in the adaptations of living organisms can have come about without their intentionally being designed. The explanation relies crucially on the possibility of certain physical processes : mainly, gene replication and natural selection . In this paper, I show that for those processes to be possible without the design of biological adaptations being encoded in the laws of physics, those laws must have certain other properties. The theory of what these properties are is not part of evolution theory proper, yet without it the neo-Darwinian theory does not fully achieve its purpose of explaining the appearance of design. To this end, I apply constructor theory's new mode of explanation to express exactly within physics the appearance of design, no-design laws, and the logic of self-reproduction and natural selection. I conclude that self-reproduction, replication and natural selection are possible under no-design laws, the only non-trivial condition being that they allow digital information to be physically instantiated. This has an exact characterization in the constructor theory of information. I also show that under no-design laws an accurate replicator requires the existence of a ‘vehicle’ constituting, together with the replicator, a self-reproducer.

scholarly journals Social Media, Peer Surveillance, Spiritual Formation, and Mission: Practising Christian Faith in a Surveilled Public Space

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 517-532
Author(s):  
Bex Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Spiritual Formation ◽  
Technological Development ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Digital Culture ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Online Spaces ◽  
The Individual

Social media has become a part of everyday life, including the faith lives of many. It is a space that assumes an observing gaze. Engaging with Foucauldian notions of surveillance, self-regulation, and normalisation, this paper considers what it is about social and digital culture that shapes expectations of what users can or want to do in online spaces. Drawing upon a wide range of surveillance research, it reflects upon what “surveillance” looks like within social media, especially when users understand themselves to be observed in the space. Recognising moral panics around technological development, the paper considers the development of social norms and questions how self-regulation by users presents itself within a global population. Focusing upon the spiritual formation of Christian users (disciples) in an online environment as a case study of a community of practice, the paper draws particularly upon the author’s experiences online since 1997 and material from The Big Bible Project (CODEC 2010–2015). The research demonstrates how the lived experience of the individual establishes the interconnectedness of the online and offline environments. The surveillant affordances and context collapse are liberating for some users but restricting for others in both their faith formation and the subsequent imperative to mission.

scholarly journals Spontaneous and forced decay of atomic nuclei realized in two stages

2020 ◽  
pp. 122-135
Author(s):  
Viacheslav S. Okunev
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotopes ◽  
Kinetic Energy ◽  
Nuclear Reactions ◽  
External Influence ◽  
Physical Processes ◽  
Atomic Nuclei ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Fragmentation Reactions ◽  
Two Stages ◽  
Principle Of Similarity

The main purpose of the work is to determine the possibility of cluster decays of superheavy atomic nuclei. The universality of the principle of similarity allows you to apply it to the analysis of not studied physical processes. Analogies are observed in forced and spontaneous decays of atomic nuclei. It is shown that in two stages, processes initiated by external influence are realized: fragmentation reactions, forced fission of stable nuclei, and impact radioactivity. Nuclear reactions of fragmentation and forced fission of stable isotopes of lead and bismuth are realized under the action of particles (hadrons) and light atomic nuclei with a kinetic energy of more than 108 eV. Shock radioactivity is observed in the collision of macroobjects having a crystalline structure at speeds of at least ∼1 km/s. Also, in two stages, some radioactive decays of atomic nuclei are realized, including extremely rare cluster decays. Based on the analogies of the processes considered, some cautious predictions are made about the possibility of cluster decays of atomic nuclei in a wide range of atomic masses.

scholarly journals Life, Birth and Death in Democritus. Atomistic Reflections Between Physics and Ethics

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-154
Author(s):  
Miriam Campolina Diniz Peixoto
Keyword(s):  
Human Behaviour ◽  
Physical Processes ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Birth Death

The subject of life, birth and death constitutes one of the main topics in Democritus’ reflection on human questions. He seeks to understand what men think about the processes of birth and death and how they, accordingly, determine their behavior and attitudes. His reflections comprise a wide range of perspectives and aspects that include examining human behaviour and investigating how it reveals a certain temperament or inclination, inquiring about the nature of these processes and extending the analyses of the processes of birth and death to whole beings through the couple generation-corruption. In the present paper, I intend to examine the main theses and arguments which appear in the testimonies and fragments through which Democritus’ thought was transmitted from antiquity. Furthermore, I will also discuss the hypotheses that for Democritus the most important opposition was not life-death, but rather birth-death and that, at the same time, his idea of nature and life comprises both processes in the perspective of atomistic philosophy. I shall show that corruption has to be considered in two different ways, that is, in the context of physical processes that keep the kosmos in its persistence and in the context of the existence of natural beings, both living and lifeless.

scholarly journals The fall and rise of consciousness science

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anil Seth
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Empirical Study ◽  
Neurological Disorders ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Central Feature ◽  
Hard Problem ◽  
Physical Processes ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Third Person ◽  
The Universe

At the birth of psychology as a science, consciousness was its central problem. But throughout the twentieth century, ideological and methodological concerns pushed the explicit empirical study of consciousness to the sidelines. Since the 1990s, studying consciousness has regained a legitimacy and impetus befitting its status as the central feature of our mental lives. Nowadays consciousness science encompasses a rich interdisciplinary mixture drawing together philosophical, theoretical, computational, experimental, and clinical perspectives. While solving the metaphysically ‘hard’ problem of why consciousness is part of the universe may seem as intractable as ever, scientists have learned a great deal about the neural mechanisms underlying conscious states. Further progress will depend on specifying closer explanatory mappings between (first person subjective) phenomenological descriptions and (third person objective) descriptions of biological and physical processes. Such progress will help reframe our understanding of our place in nature, and may also accelerate clinical approaches to a wide range of psychiatric and neurological disorders.

scholarly journals Possible role of natural selection in the formation of tandem-repetitive noncoding DNA.

Genetics ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 136 (1) ◽  
pp. 333-341
Author(s):  
W Stephan ◽  
S Cho
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Satellite Dna ◽  
Repeat Length ◽  
Crossing Over ◽  
Recombination Rates ◽  
Noncoding Dna ◽  
Satellite Dnas ◽  
Unequal Crossing Over ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Long Range Ordering

Abstract A simulation model of sequence-dependent amplification, unequal crossing over and mutation is analyzed. This model predicts the spontaneous formation of tandem-repetitive patterns of noncoding DNA from arbitrary sequences for a wide range of parameter values. Natural selection is found to play an essential role in this self-organizing process. Natural selection which is modeled as a mechanism for controlling the length of a nucleotide string but not the sequence itself favors the formation of tandem-repetitive structures. Two measures of sequence heterogeneity, inter-repeat variability and repeat length, are analyzed in detail. For fixed mutation rate, both inter-repeat variability and repeat length are found to increase with decreasing rates of (unequal) crossing over. The results are compared with data on micro-, mini- and satellite DNAs. The properties of minisatellites and satellite DNAs resemble the simulated structures very closely. This suggests that unequal crossing over is a dominant long-range ordering force which keeps these arrays homogeneous even in regions of very low recombination rates, such as at satellite DNA loci. Our analysis also indicates that in regions of low rates of (unequal) crossing over, inter-repeat variability is maintained at a low level at the expense of much larger repeat units (multimeric repeats), which are characteristic of satellite DNA. In contrast, the microsatellite data do not fit the proposed model well, suggesting that unequal crossing over does not act on these very short tandem arrays.

scholarly journals Physical Transport Processes that Affect the Distribution of Oil in the Gulf of Mexico: Observations and Modeling

Oceanography ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-75
Author(s):  
Michel Boufadel ◽  
◽  
Annalisa Bracco ◽  
Eric Chassignet ◽  
Shuyi Chen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
Physical Environment ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Transport Processes ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Surface Mixed Layer ◽  
Physical Processes ◽  
Mixing Processes ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Wide Range

Physical transport processes such as the circulation and mixing of waters largely determine the spatial distribution of materials in the ocean. They also establish the physical environment within which biogeochemical and other processes transform materials, including naturally occurring nutrients and human-made contaminants that may sustain or harm the region’s living resources. Thus, understanding and modeling the transport and distribution of materials provides a crucial substrate for determining the effects of biological, geological, and chemical processes. The wide range of scales in which these physical processes operate includes microscale droplets and bubbles; small-scale turbulence in buoyant plumes and the near-surface “mixed” layer; submesoscale fronts, convergent and divergent flows, and small eddies; larger mesoscale quasi-geostrophic eddies; and the overall large-scale circulation of the Gulf of Mexico and its interaction with the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea; along with air-sea interaction on longer timescales. The circulation and mixing processes that operate near the Gulf of Mexico coasts, where most human activities occur, are strongly affected by wind- and river-induced currents and are further modified by the area’s complex topography. Gulf of Mexico physical processes are also characterized by strong linkages between coastal/shelf and deeper offshore waters that determine connectivity to the basin’s interior. This physical connectivity influences the transport of materials among different coastal areas within the Gulf of Mexico and can extend to adjacent basins. Major advances enabled by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative in the observation, understanding, and modeling of all of these aspects of the Gulf’s physical environment are summarized in this article, and key priorities for future work are also identified.

scholarly journals Assessment of the level of readiness of future teachers to create psychological safety in the educational environment

2021 ◽  
Vol 113 ◽  
pp. 00087
Author(s):  
S.A. Tyurenkova ◽  
A.V. Shumakova ◽  
N.I. Tsvirko
Keyword(s):  
Educational Institution ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Psychological Safety ◽  
Educational Environment ◽  
Educational Activity ◽  
Future Teachers ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Vital Component ◽  
Personal Competencies ◽  
Teachers Training

A wide range of potential risks and threats in each educational activity segment determines the need to create the safety of educational subjects. It requires improving teachers’ training to create a safe educational environment and the formation of a safety culture in the younger generation. As a vital component of the educational environment’s integrated safety, the authors of the article consider psychological safety, in the provision of which the professional and personal competencies of the teacher in the field of self-regulation, self-government, and self-development play a unique role. The study aims to assess the level of neuropsychic stability of students of a pedagogical higher educational institution and identify the degree of development of their ability to self-government. The article presents the results of an empirical study of these indicators. More than 300 students - future teachers who are in different years of their studies - took part in the survey, which made it possible to assess the dynamics of the competencies formation. The data obtained made it possible to determine the directions for improving the institute’s work in the formation of the future teachers’ competencies necessary to create and maintain a safe, educational environment.

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