No matter who is on the Royal Society’s guest list. Get this, from Marcello Barbieri at Royal society:
Abstract: Today there is a very wide consensus on the idea that embryonic development is the result of a genetic programme and of epigenetic processes. Many models have been proposed in this theoretical framework to account for the various aspects of development, and virtually all of them have one thing in common: they do not acknowledge the presence of organic codes (codes between organic molecules) in ontogenesis. Here it is argued instead that embryonic development is a convergent increase in complexity that necessarily requires organic codes and organic memories, and a few examples of such codes are described. This is the code theory of development, a theory that was originally inspired by an algorithm that is capable of reconstructing structures from incomplete information, an algorithm that here is briefly summarized because it makes it intuitively appealing how a convergent increase in complexity can be achieved. The main thesis of the new theory is that the presence of organic codes in ontogenesis is not only a theoretical necessity but, first and foremost, an idea that can be tested and that has already been found to be in agreement with the evidence. More. (paywall)
This stuff wasn’t happening a decade ago.
See also: Is the Royal Society Finally Catching Up with Our Own Upright Biped? (Barry Arrington)
and
Sometimes Denton sounds like a Darwin who got way more right
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