“Darwinian natural selection only yields adaptation to changing local environments, and better function in an immediate habitat might just as well be achieved by greater simplicity in form and behavior as by ever-increasing complexity.” WellsMightFormNaturalEnvironmentGreaterBehaviorFunctionSimplicityLocalsComplexityYieldSelectionAdaptationNatural SelectionHabitatNatural Habitats Book:Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms Source: Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms
“There are thousands of proteins in the cells, some of them very large chains of molecules. And the cell doesn't function if one of those chains of molecules isn't there, and you start looking at the complexity of life and the mystery of life, and then start thinking about things like the twenty universal constants, that if any one of them from Plank's minimum to the mass of a proton, if one of them is the tiniest bit off, there would be no life or possibility of it in the universe.” IfsThinkingWould BeUniverseBitsMysteryPossibilityMassUniversalFunctionTwentiesChainsCellsComplexityMinimumMoleculesProteinMystery Of LifeProton Author:Dean Koontz
“The everyday brain could be dubbed "the baseline brain," because it operates at the minimum functioning to keep you alive and healthy. It controls your heart rate, your blood pressure, your immune function, all of your subconscious impulses. That's not a minor role; the baseline brain is a marvel of complexity and efficiency. But too much of it is devoted to habits, old conditioning, unconscious reflexes, and lack of self-awareness.” HeartSelfBrainRolesToo MuchAliveBloodAwarenessHabitHealthyFunctionPressureSelf AwarenessEverydayRateImpulseComplexityUnconsciousDevotedMinorsEfficiencyMinimumSubconsciousConditioningImmuneReflexesBlood PressureHeart Rate Author:Deepak Chopra
“The continuous networks of neural circuitry accomplish their functions using multiple, independently discovered strategies. The brain lends itself well to the complexity of the world, but poorly to clear-cut cartography.” WorldWellsBrainClearCuttingFunctionStrategyAccomplishComplexityMultipleCartography Author:David Eagleman
“My work was fairly theoretical. It was in recursive function theory. And in particular, hierarchies of functions in terms of computational complexity. I got involved in real computers and programming mainly by being - well, I was interested even as I came to graduate school.” WellsRealSchoolTermParticularTheoryInvolvedComputerFunctionComplexityProgrammingGraduatesHierarchyTheoreticalGraduate School Author:Dennis Ritchie
“A diverse ecosystem will also be resilient, because it contains many species with overlapping ecological functions that can partially replace one another. When a particular species is destroyed by a severe disturbance so that a link in the network is broken, a diverse community will be able to survive and reorganize itself... In other words, the more complex the network is, the more complex its pattern of interconnections, the more resilient it will be.” AbleCommunityParticularBrokenFunctionSpeciesComplexesPatternsDestroyedComplexityLinksDiverseEcologySevereEcologicalResilientEcosystemsDisturbanceBiodiversityInterconnectionOverlapping Author:Fritjof Capra
“An immune system of enormous complexity is present in all vertebrate animals. When we place a population of lymphocytes from such an animal in appropriate tissue culture fluid, and when we add an antigen, the lymphocytes will produce specific antibody molecules, in the absense of any nerve cells. I find it astonishing that the immune system embodies a degree of complexity which suggests some more or less superficial though striking analogies with human language, and that this cognitive system has evolved and functions without assistance of the brain.” HumansCultureLanguageAnimalBrainProduceDegreesFunctionAddPopulationEnormousCellsComplexityAppropriateNervesSuperficialAssistanceAstonishingFluidImmuneMoleculesAnalogiesCognitiveTissuesImmune SystemHuman LanguageVertebratesAntibodies Author:Niels Kaj Jerne
“Anarchy is a function, not of a society's simplicity and lack of social organization, but of it's complexity and multiplicity of social organizations.” SocialOrganizationFunctionSimplicityComplexityAnarchyMultiplicitySocial Organization Author:Colin Ward