Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Evolution and the 'Wisdom of Crowds'

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the better-and-better dept.

An anonymous reader writes "An essay by a developer of recommendation systems makes a case for why so many people have trouble grasping Darwin's theory of evolution. Downplaying its conflict with religion, the essay suggests that evolution is in a specific class of "equilibrium seeking" concepts that tend to be extremely counterintuitive to most people. The hypothesis is supported by the observation that so many people reject the notion that evolution-like systems such as Wikipedia, prediction markets, and recommendation systems can actually be effective. Particularly fascinating is the description of his surprisingly simple algorithm for competing in the Netflix prize contest."

3 of 804 comments (clear)

  1. Re:typo by arivanov · · Score: 4, Informative

    Journalist to George Bush (senior): Surely you recognize the equal citizenship and patriotism of Americans who are Atheists?

    Bush: No, I don't know that Atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God.

    Current stats:

    85% of Americans self-identify as Christians. (2002)
      7% of US adults classify as evangelicals (2004) (see Evangelical category for more information)
      38% of US adults classify as born again, but not evangelical. (2004)
      37% are self-described Christians but are neither evangelical nor born again
      Atheists and agnostics comprise 12% of adults nationwide. (2004)
      11% of the US population identify with a faith other than Christianity (2004)
      s/Christian/Muslim/g

    Nuff said... No further comment...

    --
    Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
    http://www.sigsegv.cx/
  2. Re:typo by vadim_t · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually it's largely an American thing.

    I brought this subject up several times in a conversation with europeans. Those who don't follow slashdot and similar sites hadn't heard about the concept of "intelligent design" at all, and needed it explained. And all of them went "WTF?" at the explanation.

    The vast majority of the population hasn't even heard of ID. All the religious arguments I participated in (and there were quite a few) always revolved around the existence/inexistence of a deity, evolution wasn't brought up even once.

  3. Re:typo by pubjames · · Score: 4, Informative

    Not just Americans, but most people across the world don't believe in evolution.

    Got any proof? Because I've got some that shows you're wrong. Link.