Is competition really all there is? If you take the word of those who insist that natural selection is solely responsible for all of life on earth, then yes. The story goes that competition drives fitness, that maximizing fitness ensures survival, and that survival ensures your traits become fixed in the population. But that's not the whole story. On the other side of the competitive evolutionary coin, there is natural induction, a collaborative process that balances the tooth & claw aspects of natural selection. On this week's episode, Dr. Richard Watson uses the language of machine learning and artificial intelligence to make a compelling about how our understanding of evolution has misunderstood a key point: The success of individuals and groups depends on collaboration as much as it does on competition. 00:00 what does it mean for a system to be intelligent? 00:05:14 how can we talk about biology if we ignore things like "will" and "intention" 00:08:48 why should thing change towards better over time? 00:10:23 is evolution a history of progress? 00:16:27 natural induction offers a mechanism beyond competition 00:19:50 if cheating offers increases in fitness, why don't all populations collapse from it? 00:22:03 the natural induction allows for increases of fitness without competition 00:25:21 an example of natural induction 00:32:17 what are the implications of this work? Competition isn't all there is) 00:34:50 is dominance really at the core of western spirituality? 00:36:26 the axis between spirit and power 00:37:48 reductionist science speaking of "the web of life" is nonsense 00:40:25 the biosphere cannot be adaptive under natural selection 0042:04 how natural induction allows us to cure the biosphere as an evolutionary system 00:43:12 neural networks show induction: improvement overall without pain level feedback 00:45:02 natural induction and selection co-occur temporally 00:46:32 how can you measure tension in a network? 00:49:33 Resource allocation solves like a sudoku puzzles 00:54:10 Why "natural induction"? 00:56:39 How ecosystems fail vs how they succeed 01:00:13 The stories we tell ourselves matter 01:04:25 Concluding Remarks Support the podcast by becoming a Patron @DemystifySci ªº¬˚∆≤≥≤≥ https://www.patreon.com/demystifysci ≤≥≤≥∆˚¬ºª #Evolution #Intelligence #Induction Dr. Richard Watson: https://www.richardawatson.com/ Check our short-films channel, @DemystifyingScience: https://youtu.be/1OCL5Lq8m6s ªº¬˚∆≤≥≤≥ Join the mailing list https://bit.ly/3v3kz2S​ ≤≥≤≥∆˚¬ºª PODCAST INFO: Anastasia completed her PhD studying microbial communication at Columbia University. When not talking to brilliant people or making movies, she spends her time painting and exploring the woods. Michael Shilo also did his PhD at Columbia studying the elastic properties of molecular water. When he's not in the film studio, he's exploring sound in music. They are both freelance professors at various universities. Blog: http://demystifyingscience.com/blog Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3uhn7J1 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/39IDJBD RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/2be66934/podcast/rss Donate: https://bit.ly/3wkPqaD Swag: https://bit.ly/2PXdC2y SOCIAL: - Discord: https://discord.gg/HXQNjTvZCb - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/demystifyingscience - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/demystifysci/ - Twitter: https://twitter.com/demystifysci