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The Arrival of the Fittest Andreas Wagner

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We all know about natural selection and the so-called survival of the fittest, which governs how evolution preserves useful adaptations in each subsequent generation of a species. Unfortunately, random change alone could not have produced life as we know it – the maths don't add up, according to cutting-edge research by Andreas Wagner in the revolutionary field of computational biology.

In the last decade, Wagner has detected the biological networks guiding the creation of innovation. His investigations of the genes of everything from bacteria to humans is rewriting our understanding of how exactly evolution works and providing insights into the origins of creativity, with lessons that can be applied far beyond genomes.

In The Arrival of the Fittest, Wagner delivers a breathtaking new look at our origins, from the genes up.

The Arrival of the Fittest Andreas Wagner

TL;DR Wagner oversells himself with his title and intro. This book presents a computational model to explain a long-standing evolutionary problem. However, the model (and current computing power) are not sufficient to conclusively address this question.

Background: This book was purchased for a graduate seminar in evolution and ecology where we read the book in conjunction with the author's papers. We were all pretty excited by the title (it seemed revolutionary!) but confused as to why none of us (including the lead professor) had not seen the author in our own readings of the literature.

Pros:
+Engaging writing; has some interesting conceptual presentations
+Presents a solid biological background in the first few chapters

Cons:
-Does not clearly and consistently define terms critical to central points
-Overarching structure of the book is confusing and does not have a clear trajectory toward a definite conclusion
-Very focused on a simple computational model that does not integrate many important aspects of evolutionary biology (i.e. selection, fitness)
-Model is explained through a metaphor that gets repeated a lot, but several elements of the metaphor are never defined. It is unclear how this relates to actual, living biological systems
-Middle chapters are highly redundant (they seem to discuss the same model applied to several different levels of biological organization)
-Last chapter is suddenly and confusingly about robots
-Occasionally drifts toward Creationist language. Wagner claims early on he is NOT a Creationist, but much of his metaphorical language about how innovations come about is similar to Creationist language. This is unfortunate in a book aimed at a lay audience and risks perpetuating misconceptions about evolution.
-Does not refer to the work of many evolutionary biologists who are working on very similar work with different (or at least not clearly parallel) conclusions (i.e. Richard Lenski's long-term E. coli experiment)

Conclusions: If you are a layperson, this book presents a seductively simple model that risks misleading you about the state of the field. If you are an evolutionary biologist, you will likely be frustrated by Wagner's lack of citations of core evolutionary literature, lack of acknowledgement of fitness/selection component, and lack of clear definition of many of his terms.

Product details File Size 2126 KB Print Length 306 pages Publisher Oneworld Publications (November 11, 2014) Publication Date November 11, 2014 Sold by  Digital Services LLC Language English ASIN B00N01TV7E

Tags : The Arrival of the Fittest - Kindle edition by Andreas Wagner. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading The Arrival of the Fittest.,ebook,Andreas Wagner,The Arrival of the Fittest,Oneworld Publications
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The Arrival of the Fittest Andreas Wagner Reviews

Wagner's language is rather flowery, but overall his writing style is engaging and he works hard to incorporate metaphors to make his work more understandable to those who aren't familiar with this field. His main point is that accumulation of neutral mutations (which have no effect on organism function and survival) can allow organisms to explore different genotypes and get closer to innovative mutations (which create a new molecule or reaction that improves organism function or survival). Unfortunately, in his effort to make his work easily understandable, Wagner leaves out a thorough description of the parameters of his computer models, so I was only able to really understand his work after reading some of his published papers (that he cites in this book). I was also bothered by how little research supports the application of his computer models to real evolutionary processes, how all his models ignore natural selection, and how his ideas seem to contradict the work of prominent evolutionary biologists, like Richard Lenski (who works on E. coli, not computer models).
An excellent walk though the world of evolution. Arrival of the Fittest is an adventure that anyone who enjoys science will appreciate. Wagner is humorous and knowledgeable and I'm so glad I took the advice of my friend who recommended this book. 5 stars!
Wagner promises but does not deliver

In the prologue to his book Wagner gives the impression that he is going to explain where the "innovations", that is, the variation, or the raw material for natural selection comes from. So as I read the book I waited for the arrival of the fittest. They never came. It turned out that the book wasn't about that at all. Wagner explains not the origin of the variation, but the organization of the variation in genetic networks. The variation here represented by the immense numbers of possible metabolisms, three-dimensional protein and RNA structures and the regulatory circuits. This is all very good and interesting, but how did it end up being organized the way Wagner claims it is? Here and there Wagner falls back on a stale lifesaver self-organization. It seems that whenever we are stuck, we can resort to self-organization-whatever it may be and however it does its magic-to pull us out of a quagmire.

Actually, this would be a pretty good book, if Wagner presented his findings and ideas differently. Perhaps, by starting for the simpler scenario that this is indeed about the organization of the networks that make evolution work. A revision of his inflated writing style would also help tremendously. We don't need to be reminded of the "title character of Jaws" in a discussion of the urea metabolism in cartilaginous fish nor of Erwin Schrodinger's book "What is Life?"-another outdated cliche that won't go away even when it adds nothing to the discussion. And after a while it gets tedious to read about the background of every one of Wagner's students and to be told how talented they were.
TL;DR Wagner oversells himself with his title and intro. This book presents a computational model to explain a long-standing evolutionary problem. However, the model (and current computing power) are not sufficient to conclusively address this question.

Background This book was purchased for a graduate seminar in evolution and ecology where we read the book in conjunction with the author's papers. We were all pretty excited by the title (it seemed revolutionary!) but confused as to why none of us (including the lead professor) had not seen the author in our own readings of the literature.

Pros
+Engaging writing; has some interesting conceptual presentations
+Presents a solid biological background in the first few chapters

Cons
-Does not clearly and consistently define terms critical to central points
-Overarching structure of the book is confusing and does not have a clear trajectory toward a definite conclusion
-Very focused on a simple computational model that does not integrate many important aspects of evolutionary biology (i.e. selection, fitness)
-Model is explained through a metaphor that gets repeated a lot, but several elements of the metaphor are never defined. It is unclear how this relates to actual, living biological systems
-Middle chapters are highly redundant (they seem to discuss the same model applied to several different levels of biological organization)
-Last chapter is suddenly and confusingly about robots
-Occasionally drifts toward Creationist language. Wagner claims early on he is NOT a Creationist, but much of his metaphorical language about how innovations come about is similar to Creationist language. This is unfortunate in a book aimed at a lay audience and risks perpetuating misconceptions about evolution.
-Does not refer to the work of many evolutionary biologists who are working on very similar work with different (or at least not clearly parallel) conclusions (i.e. Richard Lenski's long-term E. coli experiment)

Conclusions If you are a layperson, this book presents a seductively simple model that risks misleading you about the state of the field. If you are an evolutionary biologist, you will likely be frustrated by Wagner's lack of citations of core evolutionary literature, lack of acknowledgement of fitness/selection component, and lack of clear definition of many of his terms.