Philosophy Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Species: In biology, a species is a fundamental unit of classification. It groups together organisms that can interbreed and produce fertile offspring, sharing common characteristics and occupying a specific ecological niche. See also Niches, Evolution, Genes, Natural Kinds._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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St. Kauffman on Species - Dictionary of Arguments
I 310 Species/Evolution/Kauffman: it is estimated that between 99% and 99.9% of all species that have ever existed are extinct again. >Extinction, >Evolution, >Survival. Today: probably between 10 and 100 million species. Probably between 10 and 100 billion species have emerged and disappeared in the course of time. I 310/311 Fitness landscape/Co-evolution/Kauffman: changes when the environment changes. Predator-prey-cycles. Both have a fitness landscape, but the two are combined! >Co-evolution. Co-evolution/Kauffman: changes not only the organisms (predator/prey) but also their interrelationship! This changes not only the respective fitness landscape, but also the elasticity of their relationships. >Fitness landscape, >Fitness. Thus, the process of co-evolution itself is subject to evolution. >Levels/order, >Description Levels. Selection/Kauffman: starts at the level of the individual. The mystery is that the emergent order of communities reflects this selection of individuals. >Selection, >Individuals. I 312 Predator-prey-cycle/Kauffman: either long-term transition to a steady state (parallel) or long-term shifted sinusoidal fluctuations, then "boundary cycle". I 315 Evolution/Communities/Kauffman: Question: How do biocoenoses form? We do not know it. >Life, >Life/Kauffman. When you fence an area (ecotope) the composition of the species always changes. After removing the fence, however, the original composition is not restored! "Community fitness landscape": after the change, the community climbs another summit. At a summit, a community cannot accept new species. Saturation limit. >Coincidence. I 320 Problem: it does not make sense to talk about community fitness right from the start! The success of immigration does not depend directly on whether it increases the fitness of the community! >Niches. Now, however, the simulations behave as if community fitness existed. In the model (not in reality) we see here an emergent phenomenon. Extinction events/extinction/Kauffman: the extinction of species occurs according to the pattern of avalanches in sand heaps, many small, few large avalanches, unpredictable, potency law. N.B.: the decision on how the interrelationship between species is formed, who is predator and who is prey, is based on a random distribution. I 320 Mitochondria/Kauffman: have penetrated the cells at some point and started the complicated interaction mechanism that has been stable for about one billion years. Highly complex problem. >Complexity. Def Mutualism: Mitochondria keep up the stable population by the speed of their divisions, the cell enjoys the energetic fruits of these efforts. I 322 "Red Queen Effect"/Kauffman: (Alice): "You must run as fast as you can to stay in the same place". I 323 Co-evolution/Niche/Kauffman: the goods and services in a community (economic network) exist only because they are useful as an intermediate or final product. These are the niches created by other goods and services. Niche/Kauffman: each species lives in a niche created by other species (>benefit for others). >Niches._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Kau II Stuart Kauffman At Home in the Universe: The Search for the Laws of Self-Organization and Complexity New York 1995 Kauffman I St. Kauffman At Home in the Universe, New York 1995 German Edition: Der Öltropfen im Wasser. Chaos, Komplexität, Selbstorganisation in Natur und Gesellschaft München 1998 |
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Ed. Martin Schulz, access date 2024-04-19