Hey, check out the history of universe in 200 words taken here.

Quantum fluctuation. Inflation. Expansion. Strong nuclear interaction. Particle-antiparticle annihilation. Deuterium and helium production. Density perturbations. Recombination. Blackbody radiation. Local contraction. Cluster formation. Reionization? Violent relaxation. Virialization. Biased galaxy formation? Turbulent fragmentation. Contraction. Ionization. Compression. Opaque hydrogen. Massive star formation. Deuterium ignition. Hydrogen fusion. Hydrogen depletion. Core contraction. Envelope expansion. Helium fusion. Carbon, oxygen, and silicon fusion. Iron production. Implosion. Supernova explosion. Metals injection. Star formation. Supernova explosions. Star formation. Condensation. Planetesimal accretion. Planetary differentiation. Crust solidification. Volatile gas expulsion. Water condensation. Water dissociation. Ozone production. Ultraviolet absorption. Photosynthetic unicellular organisms. Oxidation. Mutation. Natural selection and evolution. Respiration. Cell differentiation. Sexual reproduction. Fossilization. Land exploration. Dinosaur extinction. Mammal expansion. Glaciation. Homo sapiens manifestation. Animal domestication. Food surplus production. Civilization! Innovation. Exploration. Religion. Warring nations. Empire creation and destruction. Exploration. Colonization. Taxation without representation. Revolution. Constitution. Election. Expansion. Industrialization. Rebellion. Emancipation Proclamation. Invention. Mass production. Urbanization. Immigration. World conflagration. League of Nations. Suffrage extension. Depression. World conflagration. Fission explosions. United Nations. Space exploration. Assassinations. Lunar excursions. Resignation. Computerization. World Trade Organization. Terrorism. Internet expansion. Reunification. Dissolution. World-Wide Web creation. Composition. Extrapolation?

I think it is an extremely good piece of writing. What do you say?

Check out this great AI newsletter. It has a collection of articles on biocomputing. It is a great read. It has posts on the topics such as: From Etch a Sketch to Bact a Sketch at iGEM, E. Coli edge detectors, Silicomimetic Noughts and Crosses in DNA, Genetic inverters, NOR gates and binary counters, How the biologist should comprehend the radio, etc.

You must read it even if you ain’t interested in biology, computers or even both!

Check out the link at: http://www.ainewsletter.com/newsletters/aix_0512.htm

Here is my proposal to create rather evolve bio-intelligence.

Evolution of Bio-intelligence

My proposal is to use bacteria as a form of crude neural networks.. such as to play a game of tic-tac-toe or perhaps classifying images or playing chess…

This will be a form of unsupervised learning where:
-we would culture a bacteria colony/ or many bacterial colonies simultaneously
-encode inputs as signals/chemicals understood by bacteria
-encode outputs as signals/chemicals excreted by colony
-provide food if the output of colony is correct that is the move made by bacteria is correct one
-provide toxins if output is incorrect or the move made is illegal
-provide a combination of both (proportionally) if the output is fuzzy
-if need arises introduce mutagens into the colony to accelerate evolution

The rest of work will be done by the evolution or by the colony itself.

This way the best chess playing bacterial colony will evolve, the rest will die. And This way we can create real intelligence in the real-world and which is not just a simulation as in case of artificial neural networks.

End of proposal

Resources: A similar work by Erach has been published in AI newsletter. Click here to access it.

UPDATE (7th Jan, 2006)

From my discussions at Google groups, I have gathered few interesting points:

1. “” My skeptical mind says that evolution would work, but it
is too slow. However, suddenly immunology popped into my mind, and the way that it can respond to antigens (usually proteins) that is has never seen before and respond. B cells and T cells use a set of DNA segments that they can combine in MILLIONS of different sequences to generate receptors for proteins they have never seen before. If the protein is actually encountered, it signals that this new combination is actually useful and this cell then proliferates and multiplies. Perhaps incorporating such
strategies (somatic hypermutation, clonal selection) into bacteria would be
necessary for it to rapidly evolve the necessary molecular network that
could respond with the proper signals (in this case to play chess) “” says Greg

2. Quorum sensing: We know that bacteria are able to communicate between themselves and also they are also able to change the expression of certain genes according to exterior environment.

1. A Squidoo lens on Synthetic Biology
2. Another Blog on Synthetic Biology

An Evolutionary Approach to Synthetic Biology: Zen and the Art of Creating Life

A paper discussing aspects of artificial life. Click here to access it.

Four excellent sites offering free answers answered by experts. I hope they remain free forever. They can be great tool for research….

1. Yahoo Answers – Great site!
2. Wondir – Ask science questions
3. Ask a Scientist – A good site with answers from real scientists.
4. All Experts – Thanks Akhil Kamma for this link

I’ve uploaded an article on Metaevolution on my site. Metaevolution is evolution of evolution. Check it out here.

Can someone comment on how evolution was affected when intelligence emerged on our planet? Or more precisely, how are humans affecting the evolution of life on the planet?

UPDATE (7th Jan, 2006)

From an answer at Yahoo Answers and my discussions at Google Groups, I am mentioning a few noteworthy points:

1. “That intelligence is not the epitome of evolution”

2. “Interestingly, however, we’ve possibly reached a point where further expansion of the human intellect by evolution will be selected against, as the smartest in our society are also the least fertile (not that they can’t but that they don’t).”

3. “The other big impact of intelligence on evolution has to do with other species. We have already created many new breeds and strains through artificial selection, which now acts as a second edriver in evolution, in addition to natural selection (all domesticated animals and agriculture show the results of this selection). Now, we have the intelligence to take that a step further, by selected mutation. Thus, instead of merely selecting from among natural variation, we can create the sort of unnatural variation that we most desire.”

4. I say, “I just wanted a discussion on the issue if humans are special when we see from evolution’s perspective?
I think we certainly are. Since, no other organism(or a large
percentage of organisms) has ever tried to change to paths of natural
evolution by domesticating organisms, genetically modification. So,
today we, humans, are a cause of different type of evolution on earth.
Let us call it Artificial Evolution. ”

5. I say, ” Because we have learnt to manipulate the most basic unit of
evolution i.e. gene. So, in the future we will be major drivers of
evolution. But would then we call it evolution??

Did evolution called its own death by evolving humans/intelligence??”"

Tunatic is a software which can identify the music.. Sound’s boring.. Well it can recognize music from any source, be it radio, MP3 player, etc. Just place your mic infront of the speakers, and then tunatic identifies the title of song and its singer. I think it is closest to Artificial Intelligence.

Check out: http://www.wildbits.com/tunatic/

Hey, I’ve found two extremely interactive resources (tutorials) for evolution:
1. Understanding Evolution. They have a free online course on Evolution called as Evolution 101. Don’t miss it out.
2. PBS Evolution. Understand evolution interactively.