Without Miracles

Universal Selection Theory
and the Second Darwinian Revolution

Gary Cziko

g-cziko@uiuc.edu
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

A Bradford Book
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
(c) 1995 Massachusets Institute of Technology

TO ORDER

Reviews

Contents

Preface ix
Acknowledgments xi

I The Need for Selection 1

1. Puzzles of Fit 3

II The Achievements of Selection 11

2. The Fit of Biological Structures 13

3. The Emergence of Instinct  27

4. The Immune System: Selection by the Enemy 39

5. Brain Evolution and Development: The Selection of Neurons and Synapses 49

III The Promise of Selection 71

6. The Origin and Growth of Human Knowledge 73

7. The Adaptive Modification of Behavior 87

8. Adapted Behavior as the Control of Perception 101

9. The Development and Functioning of Thought 123

10. Cultural Knowledge as the Evolution of Tradition, Technology, and Science 151

11. The Evolution, Acquisition, and Use of Language 179

12. Education: The Provision and Transmission of Truth, or the Selectionist Growth of Fallible Knowledge? 213

IV The Use of Selection 235

13. Evolutionary Computing: Selection Within Silicon 237

14. The Artificial Selection of Organisms and Molecules 261

V The Universality of Selection 279

15. From Providence Through Instruction to Selection: A Well-Traveled Road 281

16. Universal Selection Theory: The Second Darwinian Revolution 303

Appendix: The Trouble With Miracles 327
Notes 331
References 357
Index 375