Modularity : understanding the development and evolution of natural complex systems / edited by Werner Callebaut and Diego Rasskin-Gutman ; foreword by Herbert A. Simon.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Callebaut, Werner.

Rasskin-Gutman, Diego.

Series:

Vienna series in theoretical biology.

The Vienna series in theoretical biology

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Evolution (Biology).

Natural selection.

Chaotic behavior in systems.

Modularity (Psychology).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xvi, 455 p.) ill.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, ©2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Experts from diverse fields, including artificial life, cognitive science, economics, developmental and evolutionary biology, and the arts, discuss modularity.Modularity--the attempt to understand systems as integrations of partially independent and interacting units--is today a dominant theme in the life sciences, cognitive science, and computer science. The concept goes back at least implicitly to the Scientific (or Copernican) Revolution, and can be found behind later theories of phrenology, physiology, and genetics; moreover, art, engineering, and mathematics rely on modular design principles. This collection broadens the scientific discussion of modularity by bringing together experts from a variety of disciplines, including artificial life, cognitive science, economics, evolutionary computation, developmental and evolutionary biology, linguistics, mathematics, morphology, paleontology, physics, theoretical chemistry, philosophy, and the arts.The contributors debate and compare the uses of modularity, discussing the different disciplinary contexts of "modular thinking" in general (including hierarchical organization, near-decomposability, quasi-independence, and recursion) or of more specialized concepts (including character complex, gene family, encapsulation, and mosaic evolution); what modules are, why and how they develop and evolve, and the implication for the research agenda in the disciplines involved; and how to bring about useful cross-disciplinary knowledge transfer on the topic. The book includes a foreword by the late Herbert A. Simon addressing the role of near-decomposability in understanding complex systems.

Contents:

Foreword / Herbert A. Simon

I. Introduction

The Ubiquity of Modularity / Werner Callebaut

II. Evo-Devo : The Making of a Modular World

Natural Selection and the Origin of Modules / Günter P. Wagner, Jason Mezey, and Raffaele Calabretta

Evolutionary Modules : Conceptual Analyses and Empirical Hypotheses / Robert N. Brandon

Evolutionary Developmental Biology Meets Levels of Selection : Modular Integration or Competition, or Both? / Rasmus G. Winther

Modularity in Evolution : Some Low-Level Questions / Lee Altenberg

Evolutionary Lock-In and the Origin of Modularity in RNA Structure / Lauren Ancel Meyers and Walter Fontana

Amphibian Variations : The Role of Modules in Mosaic Evolution / Gerhard Schlosser

III. Evo-Patterns : Working Toward a Grammar of Forms

The Remodularization of the Organism / Daniel W. McShea and Carl Anderson

Modularity : Jumping Forms within Morphospace / Diego Rasskin-Gutman

Morphological Modularity and Macroevolution : Conceptual and Empirical Aspects / Gunther J. Eble

Hierarchical Integration of Modular Structures in the Evolution of Animal Skeletons / Roger D.K. Thomas

Modularity in Art / Slavik V. Jablan

Modularity at the Boundary Between Art and Science / Angela D. Buscalioni [and others]

IV. Modularity of Mind And Culture

Evolutionary Connectionism and Mind/Brain Modularity / Raffaele Calabretta and Domenico Parisi

Modularity and Chunking / Fernand Gobet

Modularity of Cognitive Organization : Why It Is so Appealing and Why It Is Wrong / Boris M. Velichkovsky

Decomposability and Modularity of Economic Interactions / Luigi Marengo, Corrado Pasquali, and Marco Valente

The Natural Logic of Communicative Possibilities : Modularity and Presupposition / D. Kimbrough Oller.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

OCLC-licensed vendor bibliographic record.

ISBN:

0-262-26969-4

1-4237-2991-9

OCLC:

62098419