Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
For future reference, we will refer to Statement 14.6 as the
Kirschner-Gerhart
thesis.
Evidently, the
Cell Theory of Evolution
(see Row h in Table
14.3
)is
consistent with the Kirschner-Gerhart thesis.
The four key concepts involved in evolutionary discourse, namely,
genotype
,
phenotype
, the
culling (or selective) influence of environment
, and
developmental
mechanisms
(as in EvoDevo discussions [West-Eberhard 1998, 2003; Carroll
2006]), have been organized in Fig.
14.1
using the same
triadic template
that has
template
applies to so many fundamental entities in biology increases our confi-
dence that there is something universal about the
diagram
used in Fig.
14.1
and
elsewhere, justifying the naming of it as the
Peircean triadic template
or the
Peircean triadic network.
Evolution
and
development
both can be viewed as natural consequences of the
interactions between
cells
and their
environment
. Evolution involves environmental
changes that are much slower (by a factor of 10
2
or more?) than the environmental
changes involved in development of an organism. Thus we can distinguish between
two time scales -
synchronic
and
diachronic
- borrowing these terms from linguis-
occur on the same
time scale
as the life span of organisms (usually less than about
10
2
years for the human-centric point of view) and
diachronic
events are those
events that take place on the
diachronic time scale
on the order of geological times
(greater than 10
2
years). Using these terms, it may be asserted that
Evolution and development are different manifestations of the same cell-environment
interactions occurring at two distinct time scales -
diachronic
and
synchronic
.
(14.7)
If these speculations are valid in principle, the solutions to the fundamental
problems in
evolution
and
development
may be intimately linked so that they can be
achieved simultaneously or appear in synchrony. Since
diachronicity
and
synchro-
nicity
can be viewed as representing the complementary aspects of time, we may
refer to Statement 14.7 as the
Principle of the Evolution-Development Complemen-
tarity (PEDC).
According to the Law of Requisite Variety (LRV) (Sect.
5.3.2
) (Heylighen and
Joslyn 2001; Ji 1991, p. 221), no simple machines can perform complex tasks.
Applying this law to cell biology, it was concluded in Sect.
5.2.3
(see Statement
5.10) that
No simple cells can survive complex environment. (14.8)
Due to the Second Law of thermodynamics (
The entropy of the Universe
The natural environment of living systems become more complex with time on the
geological time scale.
(14.9)
Unlike human-made machines whose complexity is
passive
(i.e., remain con-
stant unless altered by external forces), the complexity of organisms appears to be
