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R D Tschirgi

Publications and source records attributed to R D Tschirgi.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1984

On the phylogeny of asymmetry and spatial discrimination.

We define and develop the fundamental experimental conditions required for an organism to demonstrate the capacity for spatial discrimination. It is then shown that concomitant with evolutionary progression in organisms, there is a corresponding increase in the dimensions of functional asymmetry, and in the quantity and dimensionality of spatial discrimination. It is also shown that the mismatch in asymmetry between the human body form and functional mechanism, and a demonstrated weakness in left--right discrimination, implies that the human organism is in transition between archetypal stages of phylogeny. Implications for the phenomena of mirrorimage reversal and left--right confusion are discussed. It is further argued that the development of functional asymmetry is an inherent principle of evolution.

Animals↗
PubMed1984

Automata simulation of the selection process.

A complete simulation of the selection process can be constructed using a population of self-replicating finite-state automata. The entire population is challenged with a repeating sequence of inputs, and those individuals that are best able to recognize the input sequence are allowed to replicate most rapidly. Replication proceeds with imperfect fidelity, so that under the constraint of constant total population size, a quasispecies distribution of error copies is obtained. The operation of this simulation provides an essential representation of an evolving system. When the input sequence is altered, the structure of the existing population is destabilized, and a new quasispecies distribution emerges. The ability of the system to respond to changes in the input and the structure of the quasispecies distribution are shown to be critically dependent on the fidelity of replication.

Animals↗
PubMed1973

Should scientists communicate--and if so, with whom?

The contemporary criterion of professional success for an academic scientist is primarily his rate of publication in scholarly journals. This distorted and relatively uncritical valuation of the communication aspects of science has promoted an increasing deluge of increasingly redundant, dilute, and trivial publications. In a modern well-equipped research laboratory, producing publishable new observations can be a fairly simple process in many fields, especially if the relevance of the observations to either the advancement of the scientific world view or to a social need is inconsequential. This easy currency of rampant new observations has obscured the creative process of formulating new scientific concepts which are the ultimate refined product of the scientific enterprise. Perhaps scientists should talk less and think more.

Communication↗