Evo-Illusion


Book Description

Evo-illusion takes a completely objective and science-based look at evolution. Blume details his pathway from his childhood of being raised very much a religious creationist, to his early fascination with science, and then to his becoming beguiled by evolution and Charles Darwin in his first paleontology class in college. Blume then tells of his surprising and enlightening reversal. Evo-illusion tells a fascinating story of biology, astronomy, physics, particle physics, and other sciences that would certainly interest any person who reads it, no matter what their position is on evolution. It takes the reader from the beginning of the universe to the first living cells on Earth, to the first multicellular organism, and then to the formation of modern organisms. Blume uniquely utilizes thought experiments that the readers can easily do, which allow them to figure what may and may not have happened during the early steps on the pathway to the formation of multicellular organisms.




Evo-illusion


Book Description

Evo-illusion takes a completely objective and science-based look at evolution. Blume details his pathway from his childhood of being raised very much a religious creationist, to his early fascination with science, and then to his becoming beguiled by evolution and Charles Darwin in his first paleontology class in college. Blume then tells of his surprising and enlightening reversal. Evo-illusion tells a fascinating story of biology, astronomy, physics, particle physics, and other sciences that would certainly interest any person who reads it, no matter what their position is on evolution. It takes the reader from the beginning of the universe to the first living cells on Earth, to the first multicellular organism, and then to the formation of modern organisms. Blume uniquely utilizes thought experiments that the readers can easily do, which allow them to figure what may and may not have happened during the early steps on the pathway to the formation of multicellular organisms.




Lessons from an Optical Illusion


Book Description

This book is a bold, modern recasting of the age-old nature-nurture debate, informed by revolutionary insights from brain science, artificial intelligence, psychiatry, linguistics, evolutionary biology, child development, ethics, and even cosmology.




Homo Novus - A Human Without Illusions


Book Description

Converging evidence from disciplines including sociobiology, evolutionary psychology and human biology forces us to adopt a new idea of what it means to be a human. As cherished concepts such as free will, naïve realism, humans as creation's crowning glory fall and our moral roots in ape group dynamics become clearer, we have to take leave of many concepts that have been central to defining our humanness. What emerges is a new human, the homo novus, a human being without illusions. Leading authors from many different fields explore these issues by addressing a range of illusions and providing evidence for the need, despite considerable reluctance, to relinquish some of our most cherished ideas about ourselves.




The Atheist's Guide to Reality: Enjoying Life without Illusions


Book Description

A book for nonbelievers who embrace the reality-driven life. We can't avoid the persistent questions about the meaning of life-and the nature of reality. Philosopher Alex Rosenberg maintains that science is the only thing that can really answer them—all of them. His bracing and ultimately upbeat book takes physics seriously as the complete description of reality and accepts all its consequences. He shows how physics makes Darwinian natural selection the only way life can emerge, and how that deprives nature of purpose, and human action of meaning, while it exposes conscious illusions such as free will and the self. The science that makes us nonbelievers provides the insight into the real difference between right and wrong, the nature of the mind, even the direction of human history. The Atheist's Guide to Reality draws powerful implications for the ethical and political issues that roil contemporary life. The result is nice nihilism, a surprisingly sanguine perspective atheists can happily embrace.




Hallucinations


Book Description

The work aims to provide an overview of the field of contemporary hallucinations research. It will consist of 28 chapters, the writing of which will be put out to international experts specialized in the specific fields at hand. The work aims to be unique, in that it intends to cover many different types of hallucination, and to approach the subject matter from four different perspectives, i.e., conceptual, phenomenological, neuroscientific, and therapeutic.




The Evo Devo of Leadership


Book Description

The concepts and practices that changed the Leadership paradigm across five continents. The evolution of a great leader who will deliver the Right Action at the Right Time for the Right Reason, consistently.A leader whose decisions benefit the community more than him or her. A leader who shares risk and reward equitably. A leader who can create transformation and knows how to fail successfully. A leader who is a champion's challenger for transformation. A wise leader.Evo-Devo is the concept that will govern this century as the Technology paradigm of the 20th Century evolves into the Psychological truth of the 21st century.Our current leadership is still following Machiavellian strategies in line with the hunter mentality of the past. The evo-devo of culture and technology is far ahead of the genetic make up of today's leaders. The technology that gives the power to a leader with knowledge and process needs compassion while still promoting success:Success which is self-sustaining




The DNA Delusion


Book Description

If I walked up to 100 well educated people, and took a poll about what they think guides the formation of a fertilized ovum into a fully formed infant, and later into a fully formed adult, I would be surprised if even one person didn't think our genes, our DNA, did that guiding. The vast majority of people think our genes hold the blueprints for the human body and all of its parts. We look like we do, act like we do, have the body parts that we do, all because of our genes. "It's in the genes" is a phrase commonly used to explain the characteristics of our being. Do our genes hold the blueprints for our entire body? This book takes a deep look into that subject. If you are one of the believers that think, "It's all in the genes", this book will change your thinking.




Evolution by Gene Duplication


Book Description

It is said that "necessity is the mother of invention". To be sure, wheels and pulleys were invented out of necessity by the tenacious minds of upright citi zens. Looking at the history of mankind, however, one has to add that "Ieisure is the mother of cultural improvement". Man's creative genius flourished only when his mind, freed from the worry of daily toils, was permitted to entertain apparently useless thoughts. In the same manner, one might say with regard to evolution that "natural selection mere(y tnodifted, while redundanry created". Natural selection has been extremely effective in policing alleHe mutations which arise in already existing gene loci. Because of natural selection, organisms have been able to adapt to changing environments, and by adaptive radiation many new species were created from a common ancestral form. Y et, being an effective policeman, natural selection is extremely conservative by nature. Had evolution been entirely dependent upon natural selection, from a bacterium only numerous forms of bacteria would have emerged. The creation of metazoans, vertebrates and finally mammals from unicellular organisms would have been quite impos sible, for such big leaps in evolution required the creation of new gene loci with previously nonexistent functions. Only the cistron which became redun dant was able to escape from the relentless pressure of natural selection, and by escaping, it accumulated formerly forbidden mutations to emerge as a new gene locus.




Cognitive Illusions


Book Description

Cognitive Illusions investigates a wide range of fascinating psychological effects in the way we think, judge and remember in our everyday lives. At the beginning of each chapter, leading researchers in the field introduce the background to phenomena such as illusions of control, overconfidence and hindsight bias. This is followed by an explanation of the experimental context in which these illusions can be investigated and a theoretical discussion drawing conclusions about the wider implications of these fallacy and bias effects. Written with researchers and instructors in mind, this tightly edited, reader-friendly text provides both an overview of research in the area and many lively pedagogic features such as chapter summaries, further reading lists and suggestions for classroom demonstrations.




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