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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."

4 of 804 comments (clear)

  1. Re:typo by speaker+of+the+truth · · Score: 0, Troll

    These Europeans haven't heard of the theory that god created the world? I truly wonder at the intelligence of your friends, if not their existence.

    --
    Using openSUSE instead of Windows since 9th of October, 2007 and liking it.
  2. Re:Religion vs Darwin vs Technology vs Society by richpoore · · Score: 0, Troll

    Do you say the same thing about parent's who have only one child? They must be stupid, or maybe just impotent? Why is it stupid to create life only on one planet. (Not that we know that for sure) I wish in these discussions people would distinguish between micro-evolution which is the scientific fact and macro-evolution which is a non-testable philosophical theory and just as much science as ID.

  3. Re:I can't wait for this meme to die. by Intron · · Score: 0, Troll

    You might take a look at this chess game played by Kasparov against 50,000 chessplayers voting on the next move from choices selected by top players, none of whom could beat Kasparov individually. You would think that the "masses" would be crushed, but in fact they tended to recognize the best strategies and ideas and gave Kasparov a lot of trouble, nearly getting a draw.

    --
    Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
  4. Re:typo by ozmanjusri · · Score: 0, Troll
    Sound to me like an escuse for living a wickerd life.

    Sounds to me like your spelling and comprehension are roughly equivalent.

    I'd say your critique of evolution lacks credibility too, but on the evidence available, I don't blame you for wanting a god to look after you.

    --
    "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."