Proving Darwin: Making Biology Mathematical [Hardcover]

Gregory Chaitin (Author)

Book Description

Release date: May 8, 2012 | ISBN-10: 0375423141 | ISBN-13: 978-0375423147 | Edition: 1

Groundbreaking mathematician Gregory Chaitin gives us the first book to posit that we can prove how Darwin’s theory of evolution works on a mathematical level.
 
For years it has been received wisdom among most scientists that, just as Darwin claimed, all of the Earth’s life-forms evolved by blind chance. But does Darwin’s theory function on a purely mathematical level? Has there been enough time for evolution to produce the remarkable biological diversity we see around us? It’s a question no one has yet answered—in fact, no one has even attempted to answer it until now.
 
In this illuminating and provocative book, Gregory Chaitin argues that we can’t be sure evolution makes sense without a mathematical theory. He elucidates the mathematical scheme he’s developed that can explain life itself, and examines the works of mathematical pioneers John von Neumann and Alan Turing through the lens of biology. Chaitin presents an accessible introduction to metabiology, a new way of thinking about biological science that highlights the mathematical structures underpinning the biological world. Fascinating and thought-provoking, Proving Darwin makes clear how biology may have found its greatest ally in mathematics.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Gregory Chaitin’s Meta Math!
 “A startling vision of the future of mathematics. . . . The Chaitinesque intellectual future will be eternally youthful and anarchic.”
—American Scientist
 
“Math’s dark secret is out . . . Chaitin explains why Omega, a number he discovered thirty years ago, has him convinced that math is based on randomness.”
—Time
 
“Is our universe computable? Is mathematics inevitable? Chaitin and I have been discussing these kinds of questions for a very long time, and it’s great to see him explain his point of view on them so passionately here.”
—Stephen Wolfram, creator of Mathematica and author of A New Kind of Science
 
“A clearly written and witty look at a difficult subject. . . . Chaitin explains with infectious enthusiasm how mathematics doesn’t equal certainty.”
—Science News

"Captivating . . . With extraordinary skill and a gentle humor, Chaitin shares his profound insights."
—Paul Davies, author of How to Build a Time Machine

About the Author

Gregory Chaitin is widely known for his work on metamathematics and for his discovery of the celebrated Omega number, which proved the fundamental unknowability of math. He is the author of many books on mathematics, including Meta Math! The Quest for Omega. This is his first book on biology. Chaitin was for many years at the IBM Watson Research Center in New York. The research described in this book was carried out at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, where Chaitin is now a professor. An Argentine-American, he is an honorary professor at the University of Buenos Aires and has an honorary doctorate from the National University of Cordoba, the oldest university in Argentina.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Pantheon; 1 edition (May 8, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375423141
• ISBN-13: 978-0375423147
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.6 x 8.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #866,749 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Thought-provoking..... June 8, 2012

By Michael Jandrok VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Mathematician Gregory Chaitin attempts to provide a mathematical model of evolution in this short book based on a university course given in the Spring of 2011 at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, where the author is a professor. It also adapts material given at one of his lectures at the Santa Fe Institute. It is a quick read and an outline at best of his work, but it does give the reader a general idea of the concepts behind what the author calls "metabiology", an attempt to model evolutionary adaptation through computer software rather than natural software, otherwise known as DNA.

The central premise of this book is that by utilizing algorithmic information theory and the flexible and creative nature of postmodern mathematics, one can construct a working mathematical toy model of evolution, creating a piece of randomly mutating software that selects for a fitness trait. The main idea here is that DNA is a naturally occurring piece of software, our internal programming language as it were. This is not an original concept, but it is one that Chaitin expands upon greatly in the text.

I'll admit that it's an absolutely compelling idea. Evolution, after all, is the backbone of modern biology, but its main concepts are often misunderstood or outright rejected by a significant portion of the population. If one can really take a mathematical model and "prove" that the basic mechanisms of evolution (random mutations and natural selection) work as advertised, then it could go a long way towards advancing scientific literacy.

Keep in mind that the author's model is simplistic at best, selecting for only one trait and having none of the environmental pressures that truly drive adaptation.... That said, it DOES work, and it provides a foundation for more complex models that will more thoroughly mimic life processes in the future, especially as biotechnology advances into computer science.

There ARE mathematical formulas presented in the text, but they don't overshadow the main ideas. You'll probably understand most of the general ideas if you have a basic proficiency in high school level algebra and/or logic. The appendices go into additional technical detail, but they can be skipped unless you have the educational foundation to fully understand the concepts presented.

I'd recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the subject matter, though I would like to see an expanded and more accessible revision of this work at some point in the future. Read more ›

22 of 29 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting ideas but short on actual content/results May 30, 2012

By J. Andrew Howe

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book promised so much, and yet delivered so little. To be sure, the author has some very interesting ideas that are worth being exposed to but that does not save this book. The first problem is in delivery - almost the entire book seems to be taken verbatim from class lectures. Certain content is duplicated often enough, that the book could have been cut in half with no loss. The second issue lies in the content itself. The author claims to have developed a working toy model of Darwinian evolution. But there's one fundamental problem here - his model relies on algorithmic mutation to introduce diversity, whereas real organisms generally undergo bitwise mutation. Hence, his model allows for a much more sophisticated search of the genotype space than is allowed in nature. In the same vein, by his own admission, the model can not actually be simulated, because it relies on a fitness function that can not be guaranteed to produce a result.

Not as important, but still misleading, is that his result claims to model Darwinian evolution. This is not true, as Darwinism posits that all existing life forms came into being from nothing (or from a primordial soup, if you wish) solely through natural selection acting on genetic crossover & mutation. What his model actually demonstrates (or would, if it could be simulated) is non-Darwinian adaptation & evolution. His evolution is only capable of tiny incremental changes that can not possibly create entirely new structures - they can only rearrange existing structures.

In summary, the fundamental ideas relating biology-mathematics-creativity are very interesting, as is the goal of developing a mathematical model for evolution. However, all this is worth a 30-60 minute lecture; not this book.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Close, but no cigar December 12, 2012

By The Professor

Format:Hardcover

I bought this book because I thought it would be interesting to see a mathematical model of evolution. In DARWIN'S DANGEROUS IDEA: EVOLUTION AND THE MEANINGS OF LIFE , Daniel Dennett proposed that evolution was an algorithmic process. I believe that he is correct, so when I saw a book claiming that evolution could be modeled and proven to be inevitable by mathematics, I was excited.

However, this book is not written by someone knowledgable of evolutionary biology. As such, the model of evolution presented here does not really describe the random mutation followed by natural selection discovered by Darwin & Wallace and later evolutionary biologists.

The reason for this is his view of evolution is not the atheistic-naturalistic view. He is a self-admitted Pythagorean who views the ultimate nature of reality not as material, but as mathematical. He does reject Platonic dualism and is a monist, but he thinks that this "material" world is just one aspect of a mathematical multiverse. He identifies with Leibniz, Spinoza, Pythagoras, and Plato philosophically more than the likes of Aristotle, Locke, and other empiricists. This is typical of mathematicians to have a very Platonic-Pythagorean worldview, which I think is a hazard of the job when you work with numbers for a living. Of course, in order to view mathematics as the fundamental constituents of reality, one must also grant numbers ontological status. I have a much more pragmatic view of numbers, that they are mere place holders for what could be, and that the rest are just useful abstract concepts....

The reason for the two stars is not for my philosophical disagreements with the author, but for his lack of real understanding of evolutionary theory (-1 star), the tenacity to claim to have mathematicaly proven evolution when he doesn't seem to truly understand biology itself (-1 star), and the quality of the writing.The book was very short and has the feel of a bunch of collected blog posts. (-1 star). The two stars he does have are earned for the attempt at modeling evolution which is something that I do think will be worthwhile to do, and one star out of generosity.

However, if you are wanting to read this book it is probably not worth reading. If you want to understand evolution, I recommend What Evolution Is , The Greatest Show on Earth, and Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History. To understand the origins of life, I recommend What is Life?: How Chemistry becomes Biology. To understand how the most basic life forms work, I recommend Wetware: A Computer in Every Living Cell and The Machinery of Life Read more ›