Jim Donegan 🎵 ✅

#PaulDavies - Can #Mathematics Explain #Evolution?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtK6mDop9e0

#Philosophy #PhilosophyOfEvolution #PhilosophyOfScience #Science #Math #Maths #Gene #GeneticDistance #Relatedness #MountImprobable #Dawkins #RichardDawlins #Life #NonLife #CloserToTruth #RobertKuhn

Paul Davies - Can Mathematics Explain Evolution?

YouTube
Aug 14, 2024 at 4:25pmWeb
Show threadJohn S. WilkinsAug 14, 2024
@jimdonegan Rule of thumb: if the headline asks a question, the answer is “No”
Show threadJim Donegan 🎵 ✅Aug 15, 2024

@jswilkins

Good point. So often true. However, in this case we're talking about processes that navigate various search spaces (or phase spaces in physics speak) and that is familiar territory to computer scientists like me and others alike. The difficulty with evolution is in using the expertise of the specialists to 'EXCLUDE' parts of that possibility space that correspond to impossibilities.

Show threadJohn S. WilkinsAug 16, 2024
@jimdonegan Oh, I would never dismiss the use of a phase space model of possible states in biology. I was focussing on the claim implicit in the question whether mathematics *explains* a physical process. It *describes* and allows us to sometimes *predict", but it never *explains* anything. This is the distinction older physicists used to call kinetic versus dynamic.
Show threadJim Donegan 🎵 ✅Aug 16, 2024

@jswilkins

Absolutely. Totally agree with that. Explanation is the gold standard, rarely achieved.

Show threadJohn S. WilkinsAug 16, 2024
@jimdonegan Moreover, expertise is little help with exclusion zones in evolution, as we know what doesn't work post hoc only. Evolution surprises us constantly.