John Maynard Smith
John Maynard Smith
John Maynard Smith FRSwas a British theoretical evolutionary biologist and geneticist. Originally an aeronautical engineer during the Second World War, he took a second degree in genetics under the well-known biologist J. B. S. Haldane. Maynard Smith was instrumental in the application of game theory to evolution and theorised on other problems such as the evolution of sex and signalling theory...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionScientist
Date of Birth6 January 1920
John Maynard Smith quotes about
mathematics easier clear
Mathematics is so much easier than words mathematics makes things clear that words merely muddle and confuse and mess up.
evolution natural mathematics
Mathematics without natural history is sterile, but natural history without mathematics is muddled.
depends
Societies depend on agreed rules.
language humans human-society
You couldn't have human society without language.
information generations genetics
Genetics is about how information is stored and transmitted between generations.
theory-of-evolution may facts
Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection is the only workable explanation that has ever been proposed for the remarkable fact of our own existence, indeed the existence of all life wherever it may turn up in the universe.
believe suffering i-can
I can't go around believing in a God that believes suffering is good for me.
careers risk problem
It is an occupational risk of biologists to claim, towards the end of their careers, that the problems which they have not solved are insoluble.
wind-blowing boeing steps
This argument [that life is too improbable to have arisen by chance] comes up repeatedly: its latest manifestation is Hoyle's discussion of the likelihood of a wind blowing through a junkyard assembling a Boeing 707 [sic]. What is wrong with it? Essentially, it is that no biologist imagines that complex structures arise in a single step.
thinking years people
As an evolutionary biologist, I have learned over the years that most people do not want to see themselves as lumbering robots programmed to ensure the survival of their genes. I don't think they will want to see themselves as digital computers either. To be told by someone with impeccable scientific credentials that they are nothing of the kind can only be pleasing.
information criteria certain
Information imposes certain criteria on how it can be stored.
sex evolution problem
The evolution of sex is the hardest problem in evolutionary biology.
waiting looks want
So far, we have been able to study only one evolving system and we cannot wait for interstellar flight to provide us with a second. If we want to discover generalizations about evolving systems, we will have to look at artificial ones.
language
Language changes very fast.