GELIFES Seminars - Gerard Jagers op Akkerhuis

Gerard Jagers op Akkerhuis

Can evolution be predicted, and will AI be the next step?

This talk offers a fresh perspective on the ongoing debate about evolution. Adopting a broad approach, the two well-known laws of evolution — variation and selection — are supplemented by a third law. This third law focuses on transitions in complexity based on the process of dual closure. The succession of dual closures reveals a hidden pattern, suggesting technical intelligences as the next step in evolution.

Biosketch:
“I am attracted to fundamental questions in biology, philosophy and artificial general intelligence (AGI). This focus has inspired me to become the architect of a new complexity theory called the ‘Operator Theory’ (or OT).

I studied plant pathology at Wageningen University (Master’s degree 1986, Cum Laude), followed by a Ph.D in ecotoxicology (Wageningen University, 1993) and a postdoctoral position at the Free University (Amsterdam). The core ideas of the operator theory date from spring 1994. In 1996 our family moved to Denmark, where I worked on computer simulations of pesticide side effects (National Environmental Research Institute, NERI, Silkeborg). In 1999 we moved back to Wageningen, where I became team leader of an ecology group at Alterra. A few years later, I gave up team leadership to work more on the operator theory and related topics. Support from Alterra led to my second Ph.D (Radboud University Nijmegen, 2010) and the publication of two books. Since 2013 I have been in contact with the AGI company Mind|Construct. In 2016, I coached students during their Academic Consultancy Training (ACT). My work for Alterra ended in 2017. In 2018 I studied philosophy of science (Wageningen University), which led to the writing of the book “ScienceBites”.”