Smith, John Maynard

Complexity theory has so far attracted few followers but much criticism. John Maynard Smith, under whom Kauffman did graduate work, complains that the theory is too mathematical and is unconnected to real-life chemistry.14 Although the complaint has merit, Smith offers no solution to the problem which Kauffman identified—the origin of complex systems. 

In his book The Problems of Biology (1986), John Maynard Smith has lucidly sounded a note of caution against this attitude ... 

Smith, John Maynard. On Being the Right Size and other Essays. Oxford University Press, Oxford. 1985. 

Pomiankowski A comment on John Maynard Smith s point. In my own work, I am studying flies with big eyespans, and I m interested in how this character affects their choice by females. I m worried about size. Bigger flies are more active, but I m interested in eyespan, so I have to create a set of flies in my experiments which are all standardized for size. Size is a general property and everything else scales with it, just asg is a general property that scales all the different specific attributes. John s question is really asking about these specific attributes. 

Humphrey I would suggest that John Maynard Smith s distinction isn t anything like so clear-cut as he is making out. Even a peacock s tail has direct markers of fitness, such as the symmetry of the eyes on the tail and its glossiness. It is no more costly to produce a tail which has beautifully symmetrical eyes than one which is not so symmetrical it is just that only the more fit males are able to accomplish this. 

Ageing evolved at the same time as sex. By sex (I should come clean) I mean the production of sex cells such as sperm and egg and their fusion to form a new organism. The terms sex and reproduction are often used interchangeably, but technically they have completely different meanings. As John Maynard Smith and Eors Szathmary put it, "the sexual process is in fact the opposite of reproduction. In reproduction, one cell divides into two in sex, two cells fuse to form one." This poses a puzzle, which we shall see applies as much to ageing as to sex what is the benefit to the individual ... 

J. Maynard-Smith in "Cell Biology in Medicine" ed., E. E. Bitter, John Wiley and Sons, New York (1973) p. 681. 

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