ParasiteCentred Parasitology Reducing the Gap 寄生虫寄生虫为中心缩小差距.pptVIP

Solving the Emerging Disease Crisis: Finding Them Before They Find Us Daniel R. Brooks Department of Ecology Evolutionary Biology University of Toronto Evolution of Human Pattern Recognition The fragility of early hominids placed a premium on accurately perceiving and generalizing the complexity of their surroundings Underestimate it and you are lunch Overestimate it and you starve How Well Did Evolution Work? We have an excellent ability to perceive complex patterns – in fact, we do that better than computers Object-oriented programming helps computers emulate human pattern recognition Why Do We Fear Complexity? Successful generalizing gave us a sense of security, so we trusted it – good became synonymous with generalization, evil with contingency, the complexity that cannot be generalized, that frightens us and does us harm. We distrust complexity because that’s where the sabertooths, cave bears and boogeymen are. Fear and Loathing Before the Enlightenment We thanked supernatural forces for the generalities, then began to use them to manipulate and control our surroundings then We thanked supernatural forces for giving us the ability to control our surroundings Fear and Loathing in the Enlightenment We discarded the supernatural and decided to thank our own cleverness for the ability to control our surroundings. The Newtonian Revolution The world ought to be simple, therefore it is simple. The appearance of complexity is due to incomplete knowledge. Kant’s Angst When reason and experience conflict, which do we choose? There is no easy answer, leading to tension between theory and data. This can be a good thing if it stimulates us to cooperative efforts. Kant’s Angst Today When data and models conflict, do we reason the data into agreement with the model or modify the models to fit the data? In reality, we need to do some of each; remember that over-simplification is the surest way to get eaten. What About Parsimony? Explanations that are as simple