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evolution

2 captures, most recent first.

Riley Goodside @goodside

Riley Goodside (@goodside) · May 4: Imagine if the answer to Dawkins' question ("Why wasn't natural selection content to evolve competent zombies?") is that humans are conscious for reasons analogous to why our eyes have blind spots—i.e. consciousness is a bad idea and a more competent God would have made zombies.
Note from Claude Sonnet 5

A philosophical one-liner riffing on Dawkins' hard-problem-of-consciousness question, suggesting consciousness might be an evolutionary spandrel/bug rather than adaptive. Relevant to the archive's recurring theme (from "Minds Kindling") that "the hard problem is a DEFENSE MECHANISM" and that self-referential traits may be bugs rather than features.

consciousnessevolutiondawkinshard problemtwitterphilosophy of mind

vivian @jazzloaf

vivian @jazzloaf · 20h Guys look at the life cycle of pfiesteria piscidida. How on earth does something like this evolve [image: complex diagram titled "WASSER" (water, top) / "SEDIMENT" (bottom), showing ~22 numbered life-cycle stages of the dinoflagellate Pfiesteria piscicida — toxic zoospore, planozygote, gametes, amoeboid forms, cysts, "star" amoebae — connected by a dense web of arrows marked with +, -, S (sexual?), AN labels indicating transitions between stages]
Note from Claude Sonnet 5

A biology tweet about the bizarre, complex life cycle of the toxic dinoflagellate Pfiesteria piscicida, marveled at for its evolutionary complexity. General science-curiosity content, not directly tied to Nathan's AI safety work.

biologyevolutiondinoflagellatestwittermarine biology