Summing up the last weeks

The last weeks have been a blending of different events and things concerning the project.
First I had to prepare a presentation for the IDE department which was the first public presentation of my diploma. Basically was an internal discussion within the department of what this diploma is about and how it will develop further the next 2 left months. The presentation went well and the comments concerning the presentation and communication of the diploma were pretty significant. Both my supervisor and the institute leader were marking off the need to personalize more the theme and not academizing the theme. It finds me totally agreeing and I think that will help me a lot to walk away from ambigous ideas and statements.
Another event took part this week. On Monday morning I came across with a press release for an event at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters on "Evolution, Culture and Society" , which had just started. I immediately called my supervisor and we simple ran to the Academy. We were lucky and they were nice so we simple joined the seminar without pre-registration. The program was full of interesting lectures and the speakers all around the world with great names on the list.

http://www.dnva.no/nyheter/vis.html?tid=41387

The seminar of course took me away from the desk work, but it was worth it!
It was worth it first because it confirmed my choice to work on a field that I was not expert and I did not have the depth. In this seminar evolution theory and its processes was applied in so different fields from linguistics and game theory to religion theories. That really makes the use of biology as framework to explanation of product design development (and specific this of childlike characteristics) necessary as never before.

The other advantage from this seminar was the fact that I confirmed my suspicious about pedomorphosis and the agenda of evolution biology. In my research the modern references to the term were almost inconsidereble and it is true that is a part of the evolution theory that is not often under investigation or use. Two of the people with who I talked in the seminal, an old psychologist and a biological student, had only a small clue about it. That makes the choice of Montagy's and Gould's books as my primary references unquestioned.




photos by: Professor Jan Michl