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Human physiology, hazards and health risks
Published in Stephen Battersby, Clay's Handbook of Environmental Health, 2023
Revati Phalkey, Naima Bradley, Alec Dobney, Virginia Murray, John O’Hagan, Mutahir Ahmad, Darren Addison, Tracy Gooding, Timothy W Gant, Emma L Marczylo, Caryn L Cox
The key difference of Lamarckism compared with Darwinism is that the environment does not select the advantageous characteristic as with Darwin’s origin of species, but rather that the organism adapts to a changing environment and then passes that adaptation to its offspring. Methylation of DNA is carried out by the DNA methyltransferases, all of which are embryonic lethal in mice that have had the genes deleted. Small non-coding RNAs are abundant in sperm and are one of two important means by which adaptations in one generation may be passed to the second and further. In monozygotic twins, who are genetically identical in terms of DNA base sequence, there is known to be epigenetic drift with time, and there is clear evidence of epigenetic transfer across multiple generations. There is much work for public health practitioners, epidemiologists, molecular scientists, policy makers and regulators to do in this space to improve health for generations to come.
Teleology for Technology
Published in Mustapha Mouloua, Peter A. Hancock, James Ferraro, Human Performance in Automated and Autonomous Systems, 2019
In considering the respective paths of evolution of human and machine, it is important to consider first the disparities of these separate evolutionary processes. With respect to human evolution, we accept a Darwinian-based concept that has been tempered with the continuing discoveries of genetics and molecular biology. In the general run of science, the concept of evolving complexity still holds sway, where the “survival of the fittest” imperative has served as the selective process over the eons of geological time (see Hancock, 2007). However, it is appropriate to ask here, fit with respect to what? It is usual to emphasize the environment of the organism in this respect. However, any environment is a dynamic and multilayered condition. It may be that an organism is perfectly adapted to a specific set of circumstances and then an event, such as a volcanic eruption, over on the other side of the world changes these local conditions. Under these conditions, the organism may become extinct. In this respect, survival of the fittest is actually survival of the survivalists since excessively specialist adaptations do not pay in the wider order of things (Kauffman, 1993). The best form of adaptation is the ability to adapt, and meta-adaptation is the primary human characteristic. It can be argued that this is indeed what the brain has evolved to do (Hancock, Szalma, and Oron-Gilad, 2005). We accept that human evolution has taken several millions of years. We also accept that human evolution proceeds at a slow rate such that differential characteristics propagate slowly through the population. Advantages in one context may be disadvantages in another context; hence, with meta-adaptation as the central characteristic, it might be expected that human evolution should progress cautiously. In pragmatic terms, evolution proposes and nature disposes. However, what does nature dispose of when technology is the ecology? Under these circumstances, survival of the “fittest” seems a much less pristine selection principle.
Teleology for Technology
Published in Mustapha Mouloua, Peter A. Hancock, James Ferraro, Human Performance in Automated and Autonomous Systems, 2019
In considering the respective paths of evolution of human and machine, it is important to consider first the disparities of these separate evolutionary processes. With respect to human evolution, we accept a Darwinian-based concept that has been tempered with the continuing discoveries of genetics and molecular biology. In the general run of science, the concept of evolving complexity still holds sway, where the “survival of the fittest” imperative has served as the selective process over the eons of geological time (see Hancock, 2007). However, it is appropriate to ask here, fit with respect to what? It is usual to emphasize the environment of the organism in this respect. However, any environment is a dynamic and multilayered condition. It may be that an organism is perfectly adapted to a specific set of circumstances and then an event, such as a volcanic eruption, over on the other side of the world changes these local conditions. Under these conditions, the organism may become extinct. In this respect, survival of the fittest is actually survival of the survivalists since excessively specialist adaptations do not pay in the wider order of things (Kauffman, 1993). The best form of adaptation is the ability to adapt, and meta-adaptation is the primary human characteristic. It can be argued that this is indeed what the brain has evolved to do (Hancock, Szalma, and Oron-Gilad, 2005). We accept that human evolution has taken several millions of years. We also accept that human evolution proceeds at a slow rate such that differential characteristics propagate slowly through the population. Advantages in one context may be disadvantages in another context; hence, with meta-adaptation as the central characteristic, it might be expected that human evolution should progress cautiously. In pragmatic terms, evolution proposes and nature disposes. However, what does nature dispose of when technology is the ecology? Under these circumstances, survival of the “fittest” seems a much less pristine selection principle.
Non-functional biomimicry: utilizing natural patterns in order to provoke attention responses
Published in International Journal of Design Creativity and Innovation, 2018
Bryan G. Young, Andrew Wodehouse
Prusinkiewicz and Lindenmayer (2012) demonstrated, through computer simulations, the ability of natural patterns, discussed in the previous section, to control the growth and form of complex biological structures. Their research effort was substantial and resulted in impressive computer-generated graphics which closely resembled the growth and appearance of living organisms. Neo-Darwinian evolution, a field which is now supported by overwhelming evidence, explains nature’s ability to act on, and determine the evolution of, biological structures. Dawkins (1997), a prominent author in the area of evolutionary biology, presents a comprehensive account of how such biological structures adapt and are selected through Darwinian evolution to solve an immense variety of biological problems. Biological problems which often overlap or resemble issues faced by engineers. As such, entire fields of engineering are arising which are focused on biologically inspired solutions, e.g. bioengineering and bionics. Biomimicry is a term used to encompass biologically inspired design, referring to the examination of nature’s models, processes, and principles for inspiration to aid human problems.
Collaborative service-component integration in cloud manufacturing
Published in International Journal of Production Research, 2018
Mohsen Moghaddam, Shimon Y. Nof
A social justice model developed by Moghaddam and Nof (2017) is applied as a useful analogy and an effective neighbourhood search mechanism. The underlying idea of this analogy is natural justice – that ‘one gains what one deserves’. The Social Darwinism Theory, a sociological extension of Charles Darwin’s law of natural selection, states that stronger/weaker individuals or groups have higher/lower chances of survival, growth, and dominance in society. Hence, the social justice analogy considers the ‘gain’ and the ‘power’ of an individual to be correlated. In the context of matching problems, an individual’s power may be represented as popularity, associated costs/benefits, resources, energy, availability, fitness, dimensional tolerance and so on. Thus, considering social justice as a benchmark for overall prosperity of society, the deviation between the power and gain of individuals (e.g. services; components; individuals; agents) can be viewed as an indicator of the solution quality.