In this podcast we interview William Miller, MD, an evolutionary biologist, who is developing Cognition-Based Evolution as a novel peer-accepted alternative to conventional evolutionary theory.
While gazing upon a Tyrannosaurus Rex in a museum one day, Dr. Miller was blown away.
To quote Dr. Miller:
The bones of the Tyrannosaurus Rex are not as enormously different from our bones as you would think. The arm bones, the leg bones, the vertebrae, the ribs, the shape of the pelvis, the shape of the hip socket. They’re very close to human anatomy. They’re not identical, but they rhyme.
And I had never thought about that before. I found it totally startling. I read that this creature had dominated the planet for about 8 million years and then had disappeared about 65, 70 million years ago. And nothing I was looking at made any sense. I turned to my partner and I said, “I don’t understand how all this could happen by accident.” Because the dominant thing in evolution is that it’s random genetic mutations, and that natural selection drives it.
I vaguely knew that. But looking at it, I couldn’t see that this was a product of pure chance.
This led to a change in career and the rest is history!
Or evolution?
Welcome to the era of the cell
Dr. Miller coined the term “the era of the cell.”
There are two advancements, according to Miller, that separate the biology of the 20th century from the biology of the 21st century.
The first is that we’ve learned that all cells are intelligent. They aren’t like transistors that just link together, as used to be believed. Cells are problem-solving.
Although we may think of ourselves as single beings, we are not. There is a huge companion microbiome: germs. We used to think there are a few of them around in our body as if they were hangers-on. That was wrong; they are absolutely vital for our immune system.
Miller says that all evolution is co-evolution, and all development is co-development. This combination with the microbes used to be the host-parasite model. It’s more like a consentual “we.” This is why the era of the cell is important; because we are a much more complicated collective life than we ever knew existed.
We are in the beginning of an exponential curve, and the era of the cell is only beginning. We know cells are intelligent and that they link together – but what we are on the verge of discovering is mind-blowing.
We hope you’ll listen to the rest of the podcast to find out more about what is being learned!
William B. Miller, Jr. M.D.
William B. Miller, Jr. M.D. is an internationally known evolutionary biologist, medical doctor, and author and co-author of seven science books, including the acclaimed The Microcosm Within. He has also contributed over three dozen peer-reviewed, highly influential academic articles on evolutionary biology. After a career practicing medicine, Dr. Miller became fascinated by evolution through a chance encounter with Sue, the startling T-Rex skeleton housed in the magnificent rotunda of the Chicago Field Museum. Since then, Dr. Miller has become a leading expert in the field of evolutionary biology, developing Cognition-Based Evolution as a novel peer-accepted alternative to conventional evolutionary theory. His latest book, Bioverse: How the Cellular World Contains the Secrets to Life’s Biggest Questions, is a popular science book for general readers. A docuseries based on its illuminating ideas is in development.
Dr. Miller had been in academic and private medical practice for over 30 years. His experiences and observations about patterns of disease led to a conviction that the dominant narratives of disease causation and evolutionary development were insufficient. The result is a discerning body of work in evolutionary biology and cellular cognition, including four academic books in print, two more to be shortly released, and Bioverse.
As an expert on the intimate interrelationships between our cells and our microbiome, he has contributed over 100 on-line articles and blog posts and given over 100 media interviews. He is a Senior Fellow at the Bioverse Foundation.
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