http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/19/science/coldblooded-does-not-mean-stupid.html?ref=science&_r=0 The Neo-Darwinian theory holds that a process of natural selection sifted through a huge genetic pool of slightly variable traits and eventually complex social behavior and the capacity to learn emerged in higher species. Driving this evolutionary process is said to be the need, or “urge” of genes to replicate. In the Neo-Darwinian model […]

http://dogbehaviorscience.wordpress.com/2013/07/21/5-tall-tales-from-1-small-mind/ “Natural selection favored the dogs that did a better job of figuring out the intentions of humans.” We run across this kind of statement all the time in the discussion on dogs. It’s supposed to serve as a powerful locomotive hauling a long logic train up Argument mountain, but it always stops me dead […]

Russell has introduced us to the power of Control Theory, and in this video one can witness it being put into expression as the complex coordinated behavior of quadcopters.   http://www.ted.com/talks/raffaello_d_andrea_the_astounding_athletic_power_of_quadcopters.html I would like to add that underneath the algorithms, sensors and computer processing of these remarkable machines is an even more fundamental and even […]