Life finds a way : what evolution teaches us about creativity / Andreas Wagner.
By: Wagner, Andreas.Publisher: London : Oneworld, 2019Description: v, 312 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.ISBN: 9781786076151 : (hbk.).Subject(s): Evolutionary developmental biology. -- Philosophy | Philosophy and science | Darwin, Charles | Science and art | Creative ability | Evolutionary genetics | Intellectual life | DNADDC classification: 576.801
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Includes bibliographical references (pages 265-293) and index.
The cartography of evolution -- The molecular revolution -- On the importance of going through hell -- Teleportation in genetic landscapes -- Of diamonds and snowflakes -- Creative machines -- Darwin in the mind -- Not all those who wander are lost -- From children to civilizations -- More than metaphors
In Darwin's survival of the fittest, each step must be uphill as life progresses towards an evolutionary peak. There is no turning back. So what happens when life needs to cross a valley in the wilds of an adaptive landscape to reach the highest summit?
World-renowned biologist Andreas Wagner reveals that life does not only walk - it also leaps. Drawing on pioneering research, Wagner explores life's creative process and how, with all the stops and starts, and knowing that sometimes things have to get worse before they get better, it bears a striking resemblance to how we humans work. A beguiling symmetry links Picasso struggling through forty versions of Guernica and the way evolution transformed a dinosaur's claw into a condor's wing.
This new understanding is already revolutionising our approach to problem-solving across the sciences. In the near future, applied in sheres as diverse as the economy and education, it will enable us to do so much more.