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PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
…and this is a pharyngula stage embryo.
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When I wrote this program, I never thought that it would evolve anything more than a variety of treelike shapes. I had hoped for weeping willows, cedars of Lebanon, Lombardy poplars, seaweeds, perhaps deer antlers. Nothing in my biologist's intuition, nothing in my 20 years experience of programming computers, and nothing in my wildest dreams prepared me for what actually emerged on screen. I can't remember exactly when in the sequence it first began to dawn on me that an evolved resemblance to something like an insect was possible. With a wild surmise, I began to breed, generation after generation, from whichever child looked most like an insect. My incredulity grew in parallel with the evolving resemblance…. I still cannot conceal from you my feeling of exultation as I first watched these exquisite creatures emerging before my eyes. I distinctly heard the triumphal opening chords of 'Also Sprach Zarathustra' (the 2001 theme) in my mind. I couldn't eat, and that night 'my' insects swarmed behind my eyelids as I tried to sleep."
My prize would be for a visually appealing world in which the life-forms have a visible, and preferably 3-D, morphology on the computer screen. They must evolve adaptations not just to 'inanimate' factors like the weather (which would produce essentially predictable, not emergent evolution) but to other evolving life forms (which is a recipe for emergent properties).
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More articles by PZ Myers can be found on Freethoughtblogs at the new Pharyngula!
Oh, this is just too shallow
Category: Weirdness
Posted on: September 4, 2006 12:42 PM, by PZ Myers
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Comments
Posted by: coturnix | September 4, 2006 12:48 PM
Is Shelley the only woman on there? And am I not hot enough to even be included? Where's Cyberspace Rendezvous?
Posted by: Zeno | September 4, 2006 1:36 PM
Isn't this a rhetorical question? Or perhaps a moot point? It seems a little like asking "Who is the hottest math teacher?" Perhaps I am surrendering to nerd stereotypes. I blame years of oppression.
Maybe that's why it was such a shock to me when a colleague surreptitiously showed me a page from a recent issue of The Advocate. It showed an interview with a twenty-something porn star who said he planned to be a math teacher when he finished putting himself through college with his X-rated career. Neither one of us has had the balls to post the interview in the faculty break room. "Future hot math teacher! Can we stand the comparison?"
Maybe I should do a blog post. The accompanying picture was not X-rated. It just didn't look like any of the math teachers I've ever seen before (either at school or in the mirror).
Posted by: Tara C. Smith | September 4, 2006 2:20 PM
I don't rate either, coturnix. :) Didn't even see PZ on there either.
Posted by: Kansas Anarchist | September 4, 2006 2:21 PM
If it's any consolation, when I clicked through, you were outperforming the picture of a chimp in reading glasses at Flags and Lollipops - Bioinformatics Blog, but only by 18 to 21.
Posted by: Mena | September 4, 2006 3:11 PM
When I clicked there were two guys, boys really, and I do prefer a more mature (and geeky) man. Does that help ease the trauma?
Posted by: Dennis | September 4, 2006 4:02 PM
No offense to coturnix, but I think Tara definitely belongs on there.
Posted by: Uber | September 4, 2006 6:09 PM
Let me go on record right now. Tara Smith is the hottest science blogger.
Posted by: Mesk | September 4, 2006 6:44 PM
There seems to be a trend towards any recogniseably female picture being rated at least 10 points higher than anything else. Perhaps this says something about the demography of ScienceBlogs readers?
Posted by: David Marjanović | September 4, 2006 7:02 PM
PZ is in there.
The gorgonopsian is a great idea!
Posted by: truth machine | September 4, 2006 7:45 PM
I don't rate either, coturnix. :)
Shocking; Tara got my vote before even clicking on the link.
Posted by: truth machine | September 4, 2006 7:50 PM
Isn't this a rhetorical question? Or perhaps a moot point?
No. No. Do you know what these terms mean?
It seems a little like asking "Who is the hottest math teacher?"
Actually it's a lot like that, and like that it is neither a rhetorical question nor a moot point.
Perhaps I am surrendering to nerd stereotypes. I blame years of oppression.
I blame a poor education, resulting in your failure to understand the concept of "sample space".
Posted by: Alon Levy | September 4, 2006 8:05 PM
Well, PZ mysteriously has a relatively high score...
Posted by: Zeno | September 5, 2006 1:39 PM
Hmm. No, it couldn't be that. My education was very, very good.
Posted by: Dr. Free-Ride | September 5, 2006 9:29 PM
[Kicks her profile pic.] Is this thing on?