Chance, Calculation and Life

Chance, Calculation and Life brings together 16 original papers from the colloquium of the same name, organized by the International Cultural Center of Cerisy in 2019. From mathematics to the humanities and biology, there are many concepts and questions related to chance. What are the different types of chance? Does chance correspond to a lack of knowledge about the causes of events, or is there a truly intrinsic and irreducible chance? Does chance preside over our decisions? Does it govern evolution? Is it at the origin of life? What part do chance and necessity play in biology? This book answers these fundamental questions by bringing together the clear and richly documented contributions of mathematicians, physicists, biologists and philosophers who make this book an incomparable tool for work and reflection.

Table of Contents:
Preface xi Thierry GAUDIN, Marie-Christine MAUREL, Jean-Charles POMEROL Introduction xv Thierry GAUDIN, Marie-Christine MAUREL, Jean-Charles POMEROL Part 1. Randomness in all of its Aspects 1 Chapter 1. Classical, Quantum and Biological Randomness as Relative Unpredictability 3 Cristian S. CALUDE and Giuseppe LONGO 1.1. Introduction 3 1.1.1. Brief historical overview 4 1.1.2. Preliminary remarks 5 1.2. Randomness in classical dynamics 6 1.3. Quantum randomness 8 1.4. Randomness in biology 15 1.5. Random sequences: a theory invariant approach 21 1.6. Classical and quantum randomness revisited 24 1.6.1. Classical versus algorithmic randomness 24 1.6.2. Quantum versus algorithmic randomness 26 1.7. Conclusion and opening: toward a proper biological randomness 27 1.8. Acknowledgments 30 1.9. References 30 Chapter 2. In The Name of Chance 37 Gilles PAGÈS 2.1. The birth of probabilities and games of chance 37 2.1.1. Solutions 38 2.1.2. To what end? 40 2.2. A very brief history of probabilities 41 2.3. Chance? What chance? 42 2.4. Prospective possibility 45 2.4.1. LLN + CLT + ENIAC = MC 45 2.4.2. Generating chance through numbers 46 2.4.3. Going back the other way 48 2.4.4. Prospective possibility as master of the world? 50 2.5. Appendix: Congruent generators, can prospective chance be periodic? 53 2.5.1. A little modulo n arithmetic 53 2.5.2. From erratic arithmetic to algorithmic randomness 56 2.5.3. And, the winner is... Mersenne Twister 623.. 60 2.6. References 61 Chapter 3. Chance in a Few Languages 63 Clarisse HERRENSCHMIDT 3.1. Classical Sanskrit 64 3.2. Persian and Arabic 65 3.3. Ancient Greek 66 3.4. Russian 67 3.5. Latin 67 3.6. French 69 3.7. English 71 3.8. Dice, chance and the symbolic world 72 3.9. References 77 Chapter 4. The Collective Determinism of Quantum Randomness 79 François VANNUCCI 4.1. True or false chance 79 4.2. Chance sneaks into uncertainty 81 4.3. The world of the infinitely small 82 4.4. A more figurative example 84 4.5. Einstein’s act of resistance 86 4.6. Schrödinger’s cat to neutrino oscillations 87 4.7. Chance versus the anthropic principle 90 4.8. And luck in life? 92 4.9. Chance and freedom 94 Chapter 5. Wave-Particle Chaos to the Stability of Living 97 Stéphane DOUADY 5.1. Introduction 97 5.2. The chaos of the wave-particle 97 5.3. The stability of living things 104 5.4. Conclusion 107 5.5. Acknowledgments 108 5.6. References 108 Chapter 6. Chance in Cosmology: Random and Turbulent Creation of Multiple Cosmos 109 Michel CASSÉ 6.1. Is quantum cosmology oxymoronic? 109 6.2. Between two realities – at the entrance and exit – is virtuality 120 6.3. Who will sing the metamorphoses of this high vacuum? 120 6.4. Loop lament 121 6.5. The quantum vacuum exists, Casimir has met it 122 6.6. The generosity of the quantum vacuum 122 6.7. Landscapes 126 6.8. The good works of Inflation 128 6.9. Sub species aeternitatis 129 6.10. The smiling vacuum 130 Chapter 7. The Chance in Decision: When Neurons Flip a Coin 133 Mathias PESSIGLIONE 7.1. A very subjective utility 133 7.2. A minimum rationality 134 7.3. There is noise in the choices 135 7.4. On the volatility of parameters 137 7.5. When the brain wears rose-tinted glasses 138 7.6. The neurons that take a vote 140 7.7. The will to move an index finger 142 7.8. Free will in debate 143 7.9. The virtue of chance 144 7.10. References 145 Chapter 8. To Have a Sense of Life: A Poetic Reconnaissance 147 Georges AMAR 8.1. References 157 Chapter 9. Divine Chance 159 Bertrand VERGELY 9.1. Thinking by chance 159 9.2. Chance, need: why choose? 160 9.3. When chance is not chance 162 9.4. When chance comes from elsewhere 166 Chapter 10. Chance and the Creative Process 169 Ivan MAGRIN-CHAGNOLLEAU 10.1. Introduction 169 10.2. Chance 170 10.3. Creation 173 10.4. Chance in the artistic creative process 176 10.5. An art of the present moment 179 10.6. Conclusion 181 10.7. References 182 Part 2. Randomness, Biology and Evolution 185 Chapter 11. Epigenetics, DNA and Chromatin Dynamics: Where is the Chance and Where is the Necessity? 187 David SITBON and Jonathan B. WEITZMAN 11.1. Introduction 187 11.2. Random combinations 187 11.3. Random alterations 188 11.4. Beyond the gene 189 11.5. Epigenetic variation 190 11.6. Concluding remarks 192 11.7. Acknowledgments 193 11.8. References 193 Chapter 12. When Acquired Characteristics Become Heritable: The Lesson of Genomes 197 Bernard DUJON 12.1. Introduction 197 12.2. Horizontal genetic exchange in prokaryotes 199 12.3. Two specificities of eukaryotes theoretically oppose horizontal gene transfer 200 12.4. Criteria for genomic analysis 201 12.5. Abundance of horizontal transfers in unicellular eukaryotes 202 12.6. Remarkable horizontal genetic transfers in pluricellular eukaryotes 203 12.7. Main mechanisms of horizontal genetic transfers 204 12.8. Introgressions and limits to the concept of species 207 12.9. Conclusion 208 12.10. References 208 Chapter 13. The Evolutionary Trajectories of Organisms are Not Stochastic 213 Philippe GRANDCOLAS 13.1. Evolution and stochasticity: a few metaphors 213 13.2. The Gouldian metaphor of the “replay” of evolution 214 13.3. The replay of evolution: what happened 215 13.4. Evolutionary replay experiments 217 13.5. Phylogenies versus experiments 218 13.6. Stochasticity, evolution and extinction 219 13.7. Conclusion 219 13.8. References 220 Chapter 14. Evolution in the Face of Chance 221 Amaury LAMBERT 14.1. Introduction 221 14.2. Waddington and the concept of canalization 224 14.3. A stochastic model of Darwinian evolution 228 14.3.1. Redundancy and neutral networks 228 14.3.2. A toy model 229 14.3.3. Mutation-selection algorithm 231 14.4. Numerical results 231 14.4.1. Canalization 231 14.4.2. Target selection 234 14.4.3. Neighborhood selection 235 14.5. Discussion 238 14.6. Acknowledgments 239 Chapter 15. Chance, Contingency and the Origins of Life: Some Historical Issues 241 Antonio LAZCANO 15.1. Acknowledgments 246 15.2. References 246 Chapter 16. Chance, Complexity and the Idea of a Universal Ethics 249 Jean-Paul DELAHAYE 16.1. Cosmic evolution and advances in computation 250 16.2. Two notions of complexity 251 16.3. Biological computations 252 16.4. Energy and emergy 253 16.5. What we hold onto 254 16.6. Noah knew this already! 254 16.7. Create, protect and collect 255 16.8. An ethics of organized complexity 255 16.9. Not so easy 256 16.10. References 258 List of Authors 261 Index 265

About the Author :
Thierry Gaudin is an engineer at MINES ParisTech and holds a doctorate in Information Sciences and Communication from Paris Nanterre University, France. He is a widely renowned expert in innovation policy and has worked with the OECD, the European Commission and the World Bank. Marie-Christine Maurel is Professor at Sorbonne University and a researcher at the Institute of Systematics, Evolution, Biodiversity, MNHN, Paris, France. Jean-Charles Pomerol is Professor Emeritus at Sorbonne University, France. He is a specialist in Decision Support Systems and former project leader for information technology in the Engineering Sciences Department at the CNRS. He was formerly in charge of the Artificial Intelligence laboratory at UPMC, Paris, as well as the President of UPMC between 2006 and 2011.