#Колонки для Комп'ютерри
145 materials
On Skin Color: A Discussion of a Human Adaptation with Justification of Far-Reaching Conclusions on the Specifics of the Action of Ecological Factors. Column for Kompyuterra #121
Why is the skin of indigenous Africans darker than the skin of indigenous Europeans? If this question seems too simplistic, one more detail can be added: why is the skin of indigenous inhabitants of Central America dark, but lighter than …
Anomalous Frogs and Environmental Health: Searching for New Approaches at the Europe-Asia Border. Column for Компьютерры #120
Let us hope that researchers of amphibian anomalies will navigate between Scylla of science that works on the principle of «What would you like?» and Charybdis of immersion in a problem which is interesting only to them.
Philosophical primer: what we know, what we will never know, and when we have to rely on presumptions. Column for Computerra #119
{ "title": "", "summary": "", "body": "We cannot prove that there is a whole world behind our perception. All we can do is establish that we adapt better if we model this world based on the assumption that it exists. …
The Inevitable Fate of the Forest-Steppe, or The Hidden Springs of History. Column for Computerra #118
First: the history of Sloboda Ukraine is partly programmed by the differences between forest and steppe niches available to members of traditional cultures. Second: we view the history of the struggle between two cultures by identifying with one of them …
Six traditional ecological niches and six social worlds of traditional human cultures. Column for Computerra #117
Each of the main ways of life generates its own population structure of people. I will try to pick different words to denote the typical groups of people associated with the six niches I have listed. I think one can …
Culturally adapting opportunists, or On the diversity of ecological niches of Homo sapiens Linnaeus, 1758. Column for Computerra #116
Thus, throughout its history, our species has changed its ecological niches. Recognizing this fact, we immediately find ourselves faced with the necessity of classifying these niches, describing their dynamics, and determining how they are related to other human characteristics. Here …
How will biology and other worldview-significant sciences be studied in such a school of the future, which is worth dreaming about? Column for Kompyuterra #115
Project justification (probably slightly or not so slightly utopian): creation of the distance learning complex "Humanity and Biosphere. Sustainable Future", intended to significantly improve the efficiency of school education
What can be judged by measuring fluctuating asymmetry?
Measuring fluctuating asymmetry — an intriguing method designed to get to the most intimate mechanisms of development. Alas, it does not always work. Often reality turns out to be «disobedient» and produces a result directly opposite to what was expected.
From the chaos of observations to dynamic typology: a discussion using the example of green frog population systems. Column for Kompyuterra #113
Do not «prop up» your judgments with references to the will of the Creator. Let us ourselves, by the powers of our reason, observe, experiment, model, make forecasts, and choose the state we desire!
Noosphere: rational forecast, scientistic vision, or hackneyed chant of science charlatans? Column for Kompyuterra #112
The evolution of the Universe has led to the fact that in us it has acquired the ability for self-knowledge. The Universe arrived at this state by passing through numerous cycles of differentiating unification. Will this process stop at us? …
The Zoologist's Credo, or What Can We Learn from Our Own Animal Nature? Column for Kompyuterra #111
In my columns I have had occasion to mention TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) — an American-born system of conferences, or perhaps quasi-scientific festivals. I learned that beyond the American TED’s there exists a network of local TEDx conferences only when …
Specific regulatory mechanism or selection? Discussion of one hypothesis about the mechanisms of reproduction of interspecific hybrids of green frogs. Column for Kompyuterrа #110
...We observe two levels of selection here. Selection among different cell lineages within an individual affects the ability to form viable chromosome sets in gametes. Selection among individuals acts on the ability to produce normal gametes. And the third level …
Social Utopia: How an Unbiased, Ideology-Free Society Should Treat the Diversity of Human Sexuality. Column for Computerra #109
The individual norm is heterosexuality (and possibly bisexuality as well). The group norm is, in all likelihood, the presence of a certain proportion of bisexual and homosexual individuals. The social norm is non-interference by society and other citizens in matters …
On the humanitarian and natural science approach to an explosive topic: discussing the causes of homosexual behavior. Column for Kompyuterra #108
The problem is that humanities scholars are not interested in what the subject they discuss actually is, how it developed, what the mechanisms of its functioning are. The main thing, in their opinion (as far as I can understand them) …
Gates of Senses: What Do the Relationships Between Our Archaic Olfaction and Evolutionarily Advanced Vision Testify To? Column for Компьютерры #107
You now understand why the primate group to which we belong is called dry-nosed primates, Haplorrhini (as opposed to the more primitive, in our view, wet-nosed primates – Strepsirrhini). Wet-nosed primates have a wet nose - well, roughly the same …
Why do we allow ourselves to be deceived, or Sad reflections on the irrationality of political life. Column for Computerra #106
…perhaps the main cleavage dividing society in Russia and Ukraine — is not the line of confrontation between the authorities and the opposition. The boundary between irrationality and rationality may prove far more consequential…
Wallace's Paradox, or Why We Have Such a Large Brain. Column for Kompyuterra #105
Sexual selection and selection for Machiavellian intelligence become intertwined and begin to reinforce each other. High intelligence becomes a fitness marker, attracting mates; carriers of this marker leave more offspring and further complicate social interactions in the population.
Unreliable Instincts, or Why Bad Mothers Are Found Among People. Column for Kompyuterra #104
And what remains of Lorenz's behavior control scheme after excluding fixed action patterns from it? Need→(releaser)→motivation. This is precisely what is called instinct, for example, by Anatoliy Protopopov and Oleksiy Vyazovskyi. Is the concept of "instinct" applicable here...
Multilateral conflict: individuals, genes and memes; individuals and groups; near-term goals and distant prospects… Column for Компьютерра #103
It seems to me that, for each of the groups, the observed lifespan of an individual reflects some compromise reached between two conflicting (mutually contradictory) tendencies: a decrease in lifespan due to group selection and its increase due to individual …
Evolution of Evolution: From Genetic Inheritance to Intratechnical Replication of T-Memes. Column for Computerra #102
An attempt to classify the stages of the evolution of evolution and the inheritance mechanisms underlying them: – biological inheritance (based on genetic, epigenetic, and possibly other mechanisms); – cultural inheritance (inheritance through learning); – extrasomatc...