INFORMATION THEORY AND EVOLUTION

Contents
Preface
1. PIONEERS OF EVOLUTIONARY THOUGHT
	Aristotle
	Averr¨oes
	The mystery of fossils
	Condorcet
	Linnaeus
	Erasmus Darwin
	Lamarck
	The debates between Cuvier and Geoffroy St. Hilaire
	Suggestions for further reading
2. CHARLES DARWIN’S LIFE AND WORK
	Family background and early life
	Aboard the Beagle
	Work in London and Down
	The Origin of Species
	The Descent of Man
	The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals; ethology
	Suggestions for further reading
3. MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
	Classical genetics
	The structure of DNA
	Protein structure
	RNA and ribosomes
	The genetic code
	Genetic engineering
	The Polymerase Chain Reaction
	Theories of chemical evolution towards the origin of life
	Molecular evidence establishing family trees in evolution
	Symbiosis
	Suggestions for further reading
4. STATISTICAL MECHANICS AND INFORMATION
	The second law of thermodynamics
	Maxwell’s demon
	Statistical mechanics
	Information theory; Shannon’s formula
	Entropy expressed as missing information
	Cybernetic information compared with thermodynamic information
	The information content of Gibbs free energy
	What is life?
	Suggestions for further reading
5. INFORMATION FLOW IN BIOLOGY
	Cybernetic (or semiotic) information; codes and languages
	The language of molecular complementarity
	The flow of information between and within cells
	Nervous systems
	Animal languages
	Suggestions for further reading
6. CULTURAL EVOLUTION AND INFORMATION
	The coevolution of human language, culture, and intelligence
	Y-chromosomal DNA and mitochondrial DNA
	Mitochondrial Eve and Y-Chromosomal Adam
	Exodus: Out of Africa
	Acceleration of human cultural evolution
	The invention of paper, ink, and printing
	The information explosion
	Information-driven human cultural evolution as part of biological evolution
	Suggestions for further reading
7. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
	The first computers
	Electronic digital computers
	Cybernetics
	The invention of transistors
	Moore’s law
	Self-reinforcing information accumulation
	The Traitorous Eight
	Integrated circuits
	The history of Wikipedia
	The history of Google
	Automation
	Suggestions for further reading
8. PATHFINDING
	The 2014 Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology
	Some excerpts from Edvard I. Moser’s Nobel lecture
	Paths in cell differentiation
	The Internet and World Wide Web
	Postal addresses
	Paths in the organization of computer memories
	Abstraction of concepts and natural laws
	Suggestions for further reading
9. THE EVOLUTION OF HUMAN LANGUAGES
	Chomsky’s assertion of rapid change
	Parse trees
	Garrod’s hypothesis
	The FOXP2 gene and protein
	Slow evolutionary change; serial homologies
	The Neanderthal and Denisovan genomes
	Suggestions for further reading
10. THE MECHANISM OF CELL DIFFERENTIATION
	Embryonic stem cells
	Diseases and conditions where stem cell treatment is being investigated
	Insect juvenile hormones and chromosomal puffs
	Jacob and Monod
	Developmental biology
	Transcription factors
	Suggestions for further reading
11. BIO-INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
	The merging of information technology and biotechnology
	Self-assembly of supramolecular structures; Nanoscience
	Molecular switches; bacteriorhodopsin
	Neural networks, biological and artificial
	Genetic algorithms
	Artificial life
	Suggestions for further reading
12. LOOKING TOWARDS THE FUTURE
	Tensions created by the rapidity of technological change
	Can information-driven society achieve stability?
	We must leave fossil fuels in the ground
	We must stabilize and ultimately reduce the global population
	We must eliminate the institution of war
	New ethics to match new technology
	Respect for natural evolution
	Construction versus destruction
	Suggestions for further reading
Appendix A ENTROPY AND INFORMATION
Appendix B BIOSEMIOTICS
	Suggestions for further reading
Appendix C ENTROPY AND ECONOMICS
	Human society as a superorganism, with the global economy as its digestive system
	Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen
	Limits to Growth; A steady-state economy
	Biological Carrying Capacity and Economics
	Population and food supply
	Social Values and Levels of Consumption
	The Responsibility of Governments
	References
Index