Darwin, nós temos um problema: a seleção natural precisa de uma condição "sem teleologia" adicionada...

Natural selection requires no teleology in addition to heritable variation in fitness

Open access

Published: 07 August 2024

Volume 39, article number 18, (2024)

Nathan Cofnas

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Abstract

According to the standard formulation, natural selection requires variation, differential fitness, and heritability. I argue that this formulation is inadequate because it fails to distinguish natural selection from artificial selection, intelligent design, forward-looking orthogenetic selection, and adaptation via the selection of nonrandom variation. I suggest adding a no teleology condition. The no teleology condition says that the evolutionary process is not guided toward an endpoint represented in the mind of an agent, variation is produced randomly with respect to adaptation, and selection pressures are not forward looking.

FREE PDF: Biology & Philosophy

Darwin, nós temos um problema: agência é uma propriedade inerente dos organismos vivos

Agency as an Inherent Property of Living Organisms

Perspective

Open access

Published: 14 August 2024

(2024)

Bernd Rosslenbroich, Susanna Kümmell & Benjamin Bembé 

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Abstract

A central characteristic of living organisms is their agency, that is, their intrinsic activity, both in terms of their basic life processes and their behavior in the environment. This aspect is currently a subject of debate and this article provides an overview of some of the relevant publications on this topic. We develop the argument that agency is immanent in living organisms. There is no life without agency. Even the basic life processes are an intrinsic activity, which we call the organismic level of agency. In addition to this we describe several further levels. These capture different qualities that occur or transform during evolution. In addition to the organismic level, we propose an ontogenetic level, a level of directed agency, directed agency with extended flexibility, and a level that includes the capacities to follow preconceived goals. A further property of organisms is their autonomy. It has been shown that the capacity for autonomy changed during evolution. Here we propose that the two organismic properties autonomy and agency are closely related. Enhanced physiological and behavioral autonomy extends the scope of self-generated, flexible actions and reactions. The increase in autonomy through the evolution of a widened scope of behavioral possibilities and versatility in organisms coincides with extended levels of agency. Especially the human organization, including the sophisticated brain, is the basis for an extended level of agency referring to the capacities to follow preconceived goals. However, it is important for the understanding of the phenomenon of agency not only to assume this latter form, but also to look at the different levels of agency.

FREE PDF: Biological Theory

O IA Scientist: um LLM em direção à descoberta científica totalmente automatizada e aberta.

The AI Scientist: Towards Fully Automated Open-Ended Scientific Discovery

August 13, 2024

At Sakana AI, we have pioneered the use of nature-inspired methods to advance cutting-edge foundation models. Earlier this year, we developed methods to automatically merge the knowledge of multiple LLMs. In more recent work, we harnessed LLMs to discover new objective functions for tuning other LLMs. Throughout these projects, we have been continuously surprised by the creative capabilities of current frontier models. This led us to dream even bigger: Can we use foundation models to automate the entire process of research itself?

Introduction

One of the grand challenges of artificial intelligence is developing agents capable of conducting scientific research and discovering new knowledge. While frontier models have already been used to aid human scientists, e.g. for brainstorming ideas or writing code, they still require extensive manual supervision or are heavily constrained to a specific task.

Today, we’re excited to introduce The AI Scientist, the first comprehensive system for fully automatic scientific discovery, enabling Foundation Models such as Large Language Models (LLMs) to perform research independently. In collaboration with the Foerster Lab for AI Research at the University of Oxford and Jeff Clune and Cong Lu at the University of British Columbia, we’re excited to release our new paper, The AI Scientist: Towards Fully Automated Open-Ended Scientific Discovery.

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Read more here.

Ichthyosporea, outra janela na origem dos animais???

Ichthyosporea: a window into the origin of animals

Victoria Shabardina, Jennah E. Dharamshi, Patricia S. Ara, Meritxell Antó, Fernando J. Bascón, Hiroshi Suga, Wyth Marshall, Claudio Scazzocchio, Elena Casacuberta & Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo 

Communications Biology volume 7, Article number: 915 (2024) 

Abstract

Ichthyosporea is an underexplored group of unicellular eukaryotes closely related to animals. Thanks to their phylogenetic position, genomic content, and development through a multinucleate coenocyte reminiscent of some animal embryos, the members of Ichthyosporea are being increasingly recognized as pivotal to the study of animal origins. We delve into the existing knowledge of Ichthyosporea, identify existing gaps and discuss their life cycles, genomic insights, development, and potential to be model organisms. We also discuss the underestimated diversity of ichthyosporeans, based on new environmental data analyses. This review will be an essential resource for researchers venturing into the study of ichthyosporeans.

FREE PDF GRATIS: Communications Biology