Evolutionary Systems Course Evaluations

Extended Critiques.

• I felt most affected by X-next. This simple equation showed me how positive and negative feedback worked together. It helped me to understand the different kinds of attractors. It really sums up the entire world for me. I can look at all kinds of real life examples and determine how they relate to complexity theory by applying X-next to them. When I felt confused about something we worked on in here I would compare it to X-next and quite frequently the comparison would help me to grasp the new concept.



• I believe the way the class was taught will have a lasting value for me. I've never had a class where I've learned things bottom-up. Chemistry doesn't count because we were told what was "supposed" to happen. Anyway, this class also offered top-down approach to learning, which was great because I'm not a genius, and can't do everything bottom-up! Seriously though, this method using both strategies is an excellent idea on the instructor's part. It was like I was "forced" to teach myself in a way I was not used to. Everything was, and still is in most cases, handed to me and expected of me to memorize or apply it on tests. I don't really figure things out on my own. I just like being told what is right and what is wrong. This class, however, showed me that it's ok to guess and make assumptions. I wasn't put down, or given bad grades because I assumed the wrong answer. Even though I'm only teaching third graders (and I hate SOL requirements) I will be applying both strategies to my classroom in the future. This course was one of the better decisions at JMU.



• I can't say that for the rest of my life I will remember at which r-value the 3rd bifurcation occurs or that red ants are apparently more dominant than black ants (at least in Microants). I will remember many things like how systems can either dies out, become stable, keep repeating, or become more and more complex (sounds kinda like me and my last 4 or 5 boyfriends ) depending on the flow of information. I will remember that in order to think about something seriously I must first define it and that others can define it differently; such as intelligence, learning, and even life. I will remember that almost everything in my life is sensitively dependent on almost anything in the world. That one little grain of sand, at a critical point, can create a huge avalanche, and that those SOC systems always strive to be at that critical point. I have also learned that the best strategies in the Prisoner's Dilemma are those that cooperate first, remember, but also forgive. I know that I will always remember "Local Rules/Global Behavior" until I'm 80 and can't even remember what it means anymore.



• This was a really great class. I learned a lot about chaos and complexity that was fascinating, like models of swarm behavior applying better to human interaction than our top-down economic theories. And all that aside, I really liked learning about evolution itself. It give me more arrows to shoot at people like Christian "scientists", and lots of material to make people feel less special and secure in their place in the scheme of things. What I really liked was the little bit on emotion driving behavior (something about fear-based motivation to act). As a rather Nietzchean philosopher I would like to advance emotion/intuition to primacy over the strictly rational cold calculations of typical realists/objectiivist philosophy. Humans are not "rational animals" (or at least not *merely* rational animals . . . ) and there is an under representation of emotional based decision making (or morality or epistemology, or anything .. . )



• Everything that I learned in this class has had a strong impact on the way that I view science, life, and pretty much the world. I had absolutely no native knowledge about evolution coming in, so it was easy for me to see the logic of the theories presented here, such as directionality and complexity. The idea that bottom-up systems work better than top-down is the most important to me, because everything I have ever been taught tells me that there has to be some organizing force, some general who determines the path of the system. That there is no "man behind the curtain" of systems such as the stock market was a big surprise to me, but this course has made that a logical fact to me.
       Thank you very much, this has been my favorite class thus far, and I plan on continuing my "new" education in the way things REALLY work.



• I have never been involved in science. I have always held interest in the field, but chose to stay away for several reasons. Science had always appeared very cold and calculating, an objective field that could not be questioned. This course has helped to dispel those notions, as philosophies are still clearly as important in science as any other field. The cold, objective science I had known was only telling me that life was a random mistake; though, the idea of centralized order still held true. As a result of this semester, I feel as though I have a better bearing as to how scientists and their theories are developed. I feel more willing to explore other scientific ideas and able to understand them for their assumptions and biases. For that, I feel as though I have become more well-rounded in my education and have enjoyed the finer points of a liberal education.



• I really enjoyed this class and I learned a lot of neat interesting things. Probably one of the most important things that I have learned that has had a huge impact on me is that everyone has their own opinion and it is okay. I am stronger about my own opinion now than what I was when I first came in here. The first seminar I was afraid of reading my summaries in class because I was afraid they were wrong. After doing both seminars and hearing everyone's ideas I have realized that everyone has a different interpretation of things but pretty much have the same idea and concept of what they are really saying. I will also look at the world in a different way now. I am able to apply certain concepts or models to them.



• Overall, I have learned a great deal in this class. I learned that everything seems to be connected in some way or another, especially by the properties a system possesses. I have learned that virtually everything in this world is Bottom up, with no central controlling agent. However, that doesn't mean to say there are not local rules. In order to be self-organizing a system needs to have a set of local rules to keep it from becoming chaotic and eventually falling into destruction.
       This class has taught me a new way of thinking, and now when faced with challenging issues such as the origin of life I will be able to exercise both inductive (bottom-up) and deductive (top-down) reasoning when faced with complex issues.



• I think that for a long time I will remember reading "The Death and Life of Great . . . " It just blew my mind that it was written so long ago but could still be considered revolutionary. It will especially affect me as I am going to be living in Boston in about two weeks. And I know that I will view the city differently than I would have otherwise had I not read Jacob's book. It will be interesting to see if city planning will change at all in the near future given the rise in the study and teaching and understanding of complex systems.



• There are many things that have been common knowledge for me but have been put in a different light. Life is not only about learning and gaining experience for yourself but to cooperate with others as a whole ecosystem is more beneficial. I will be more hesitant to leave out other people in making decisions because my decisions and choices will eventually affect someone else. I will continue to be myself, as a unique person, and will always set myself apart from others in a way that I will be different and not necessarily conform to the ways of this world, but can still cooperate in doing so. My avoiding technology and the new inventions and ideas will be holding down the fitness level of society. There is a reason for the new technology because they are always striving for cheaper and faster communication and transportation. Forgiving others will be more easy for me to do and only cooperation, with every person in every "conflict" or interaction, will be beneficial in the long run.



• This class taught me to trust my own thoughts and opinions. I have always been easily persuaded, have always assumed someone else's thoughts must be more correct than my own. This class forced me to stand up and say wait a minute, just because that guy wrote a book doesn't mean he's any more right than I am. I have learned to question everything. Just because a professor says it doesn't mean its true. This is not just a lesson for evolutionary systems, this is a lesson for life. This is not to say that I don't trust my opinion more all the time. I can still be persuaded, but now know that I can make myself knowledgeable about a subject, create my own opinion, and then fight for it. This is now an indispensable asset to me and its all because someone finally forced me to believe in my own thoughts.



• The idea that systems are "bottom up" is fascinating because in this class I found the first convincing argument that there is no God. The ideas bottom up and the sandpile, along with X-next (I have learned to put most things in terms of an r-value) have led me to question my beliefs.



• I think the biggest impact that this class has had on me is how utterly uncontrollable the things in this world are because of their infinitely complex interactions. It is impossible to completely control the economy, an ecosystem, a neighborhood, or even a genetic algorithm or artificial life program because of the complex and often unknowable interactions of the components. We can't know in advance the effect of increasing an interest rate, adding a species to an ecosystem, tearing down a building or changing one gene on a microant. This world is an amazingly complex and interesting place and now my eyes will be open to all the wonder and beauty of it. I cannot be satisfied now with just knowing what I know.



• The idea behind swarm behavior really reverberates with me. I could never understand traffic congestion and tried to rationalize who's fault it was, but now I can honestly understand it is everyone's fault, even my own. It also has so many applications to other aspects of my life. I can understand ideas behind cooperation for mutual benefit so much more now. It also intrigues me that some ideas and things can be so successful without a leader to control how things should happen. The idea makes so much sense economically as well. People do not make informed, rational decisions, they are rash and spur of the moment. It shows why reputation and popularity are so persuasive and important, because those things can affect a decision more than ideas logic and rational.
       I think the reason this makes such an impact on me is because I had never considered it before. The entire concept is so new to me that it shocks and reverses so many of my ideas on why things happen. The concept is just amazing.



• This class has made me view the world in a whole new light. Everything I have leaned seems like a new revolution in how I once thought about things. The ideas behind complexity theory seem so right to me when I think of real world systems this way and I cannot understand why more people are not familiar with this way of thinking. I honestly feel like I have learned more from this class than I have learned in the last 15 years of education. I find myself questioning so much more than I every have. I look at everything as a complex system. I can't help but think about this stuff all the time! I am so glad I took this class because it has had such an impact on my life. I know I will continue to explore and learn about this field of thinking. I have never found anything that interests me this much and I want to learn as much as I possibly can about it.



• I have always been a bit of a skeptic. I never believe everything I read, and I think it's classes that reinforce my skepticism. There were times this semester that I was very confused about what to believe. So much of what I had learned was being thrown in the dumpster, but I was glad to see some things go. I think the concept of local rules/global behavior is amazing. It is so universal. Why don't they teach stuff like this in elementary school? Overall, I know I came out of this class with many more questions than I had going in, but I have my whole life ahead of me to find the answers. It was the unorthodox principles and manner in which this class was taught that I will remember most.



• The one thing that I have learned from this class that has had a particularly strong impact upon me is - not to be scared of ambiguity and uncertainty in my pursuit of truth and Truth. There have been times which I wondered if I belonged in this class, being a finance and economics major I thought I was out of my league. However, I decided to stick with it and challenge myself by having to overcome ambiguity almost every time I came to class. This class was nothing like any other that I have ever taken and I think that had a lot to do with the bottom-up nature of the course. By conquering uncertainty I was learning a lot on my own in class, not just being trained by instructional methods as in many other courses. This class has renewed my thirst for knowledge + education and taught me how to effectively deal with uncertainty in an academic setting.