<div dir="ltr">Torday's work generally boils down to a concern for PREADAPTATION in organic evolution. This is a material necessity. Preadaptation has been ignored by the neoDarwinian evolutionary biologists, who have viewed their task to concern the dynamics of natural selection (even in simple models). So evolutionary biology has become quite abstract (mathematical), while Torday's work is very materialistic. The information perspective can likely better be applied to the materialist perspective than to the abstract neoDarwinian perspective. I think Charley D would have preferred Torday!<div><br></div><div>STAN </div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Jan 5, 2018 at 8:39 AM, PEDRO CLEMENTE MARIJUAN FERNANDEZ <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:pcmarijuan.iacs@aragon.es" target="_blank">pcmarijuan.iacs@aragon.es</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><u></u>
head><div><div dir="ltr"><p>Dear John and FIS
Colleagues,</p><p>Many thanks for this opening text of the NY
Lecture. Indeed you have presented us an intricate
panorama on one of the most obscure scientific problems of our time:
the central theory of biology. As you say, we find with astonishment
that there is literally no cell biology in evolution theory. And
I would ad that there is no "information biology" either. A central
theory becomes sort of a big Hall, where plenty of disciplinary
corridors converge and later criss-cross among themselves. Darwinian
theory is not that common hall for the really big, big science domain
of biology. What are or where are the elements to rebuild the common
Hall of the biological domain? I quote from your opening text:
</p><p><em>"It is as if the unicellular state delegates its progeny to
interact with the environment as agents, collecting data to inform the
recapitulating unicell of ecological changes that are occurring.
Through the acquisition and filtering of epigenetic marks via meiosis,
fertilization, and embryogenesis, even on into adulthood, where the
endocrine system dictates the length and depth of the stages of the
life cycle, now known to be under epigenetic control, the unicell
remains in effective synchrony with environmental changes."</em></p><p>
It is really brilliant: a heads up reversal perspective. I think out
of these ideas there are plenty of disciplinary excursions to make.
One is "informational", another "topological". Putting together two
different algorithmic descriptions and making them
to build a torus (i.e., gastrula") as a universal departure
for multicellularity also reminds the ideas of Stuart Pivart ("Omnia
Ex Torus") about the primordials of multicellularity and the role of
mechanical forces in the patterning of developmental processes.
</p><p>Echoing the ideas discussed in the Royal Society meeting
(November 2016), there is a pretty long list of elements to
take into account together with epigenetic inheritance (symbiogenesis,
viruses and mobile elements, multilevel selection, niche construction,
genomic evolution...). As I have suggested above, essential
informational ideas are missing too, and this absence of the
informational perspective in the ongoing evo discussions is not a good
thing. </p><p>i any case, it is such a great theme to ponder...
</p><p>Best wishes to all</p><p>--Pedro</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>
On Wed, 3 Jan 2018 07:15:43 -0800
JOHN TORDAY wrote:</p>
blockquote><div><div class="h5"><p dir="ltr">Dear FIS Colleagues, I have attached my New
Year Lecture at the invitation of Professor Pedro Clemente Marijuan
Fernandez. The content relates a novel perspective on the mechanism of
evolution from a cellular-molecular vantage-point. I welcome any and
all comments and criticisms in the spirit of sharing ideas openly and
constructively. Best Wishes,</p></div></div><div><div><div class="h5"><br><p> </p><p>John S.
Torday PhD</p><p>Professor</p><p>Evolutionary Medicine</p><p>UCLA</p></div></div>
/div><p> </p></div></div>
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