Biological evolution provides a creative fount of complex and subtle adaptations, often surprising the scientists who discover them. However, because evolution is an algorithmic process that transcends the substrate in which it occurs, evolution’s creativity is not limited to nature. Indeed, many researchers in the field of digital evolution have observed their evolving algorithms and organisms subverting their intentions, exposing unrecognized bugs in their code, producing unexpected adaptations, or exhibiting outcomes uncannily convergent with ones in nature. Such stories routinely reveal (...) creativity by evolution in these digital worlds, but they rarely fit into the standard scientific narrative. Instead they are often treated as mere obstacles to be overcome, rather than results that warrant study in their own right. The stories themselves are traded among researchers through oral tradition, but that mode of information transmission is inefficient and prone to error and outright loss. Moreover, the fact that these stories tend to be shared only among practitioners means that many natural scientists do not realize how interesting and lifelike digital organisms are and how natural their evolution can be. To our knowledge, no collection of such anecdotes has been published before. This paper is the crowd-sourced product of researchers in the fields of artificial life and evolutionary computation who have provided first-hand accounts of such cases. It thus serves as a written, fact-checked collection of scientifically important and even entertaining stories. In doing so we also present here substantial evidence that the existence and importance of evolutionary surprises extends beyond the natural world, and may indeed be a universal property of all complex evolving systems. (shrink)

Aravind Adiga’s novel The White Tiger encapsulates the complexities of identity formation in a milieu effected by neo-capitalism. The novel, for many, is about a new identity made available to the hitherto marginalized in the form of opportunities unveiled by market forces. It is also perceived as a registration of the frustration and anger of the deprived that has become conscious of the new possibilities. Understandably, interpreting the novel on these lines leads to the identification of the protagonist Balram as (...) a champion of the marginalized, settling scores with the oppressive system. However, there are far subtler notes in the protagonist’s attitude to these sweeping changes than the simple and one dimensional approach of an achiever who is able to break the “rooster coop” and revel at the reversal of fortune. Neither is it a representative voice of the suppressed class turning the table on its oppressor by using the opportunities offered by the global market. The “notes” of the voices that emerge as Balram, the boy from darkness, moves up the ladder to become Ashok Sharma, the entrepreneur hiding in light, not only lack symphony but also create a distinct dissonance. Clearly, the discord in the changing notes is brought about by the forces that changed the world he lives in-a neo-capitalist world. The whole process of Balram turning into Ashok Sharma is a neocapitalist coup. (shrink)

Those familiar with Whitehead's thought may wish to skim Part One: Background and Foundations and pass on to Part Two: Value Theory in General and in Particular, which is Weisenbeck's main contribution to the literature on Whitehead. In discussing the general theory, Weisenbeck calls attention to the relational character of value. He argues that Whitehead's worlds of possible and realized values are essentially related; neither has value apart from the other. Similarly, value is neither wholly in subjects nor wholly in (...) objects; it is a relationship between the valuing subject and the valuable object. The author divides Whitehead's value theory into three principal species: aesthetic, religious, and moral. The chapter on aesthetic values contains a careful examination of Whitehead's distinction between appearance and reality and an analysis of beauty as the highest value. In the section on religious values he discusses man's relationship to God and man's emotional and volitional response to the religious vision of unity and perfection. Of special interest is the section on moral values where Weisenbeck shows the connection between morality and the aesthetic ideals to be attained. In view of his emphasis on ideals and the role of love in human action Weisenbeck would presumably side against those who have attributed a private interest theory to Whitehead. The author has performed an important service in sorting out the various senses of value terms in Whitehead and in tracing their relationships.--T. P. A. (shrink)

McFarland discusses Kant's concept of teleology only insofar as it pertains to natural science, although the concept also has importance for Kant's aesthetics, ethics, and philosophies of history and religion. The study is devoted to an explication of the concept--rather than a developed interpretation-written from the belief that there is "no similar attempt to deal strictly with Kant's treatment of teleology." McFarland is apparently unaware of Klaus Düsing's more comprehensive treatment of the concept in Die Teleologie in Kants Weltbegriff which (...) includes a bibliography of the literature on the subject. Nevertheless, McFarland does draw attention to several crucial aspects of Kant's view and places it in historical perspective, showing its similarity to Hume's argument in the Dialogues. The author points out that teleology functions as a regulative concept for Kant; although we cannot attribute design to the composition of the world, we can use it heuristically to lead us to new mechanical explanations and toward a systematization of knowledge. Moreover, as a subjective principle it enables us to make sense out of organic beings which are unintelligible to us on mechanical models. McFarland argues that since organic purposiveness is a subjective principle of organization it cannot be used to solve the problem of induction and that Kant has not explained why empirical laws are objectively necessary. Although this book omits much, it will be useful to the reader desiring a brief explanation of how Kant uses the concept in parts of the first Critique and in the Critique of Teleological Judgement.--T. P. A. (shrink)

The subject matter of this book is not as limited as one might expect from the title. The author's intention is to explicate Kant's concept of geography and relate it to more recent geographical thought, but this project draws him into issues concerning the relationships which the various Kantian sciences bear to each other. What emerges is an account of the architectonic of science as it develops in Kant's thought. May calls attention to the methodological differences between the theoretical and (...) empirical sciences and argues somewhat indecisively that Kant has expanded his view of space and time in the latter. Perhaps the strongest part of the book is May's discussion of the use of teleological judgments as heuristic devices for science. Here he shows the role of the reflective judgment in building up a system of empirical concepts out of the given. A translation of Kant's introduction to Physische Geographie and a bibliography are appended.--T. P. A. (shrink)