Artem Kaznatcheev

1,017 reputation

426

bio	website	cs.mcgill.ca/~akazna
	location	Montreal, Canada
	age	23
visits	member for	1 year, 3 months
	seen	May 16 at 10:40
stats	profile views	12

From the School of Computer Science and Department of Psychology at McGill University, I marvel at the world through algorithmic lenses. My specific interests are in quantum computing, evolutionary game theory, modern evolutionary synthesis, and theoretical cognitive science. Previously I was at the Institute for Quantum Computing and Department of Combinatorics & Optimization at the University of Waterloo and a visitor to the Centre for Quantum Technologies at the National University of Singapore.

	1,017 reputation	bio	website	cs.mcgill.ca/~akazna	visits	member for	1 year, 3 months
426 badges		location	Montreal, Canada		seen	May 16 at 10:40

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Apr 18	comment	Macroevolution vs. microevolution @dd3 no problem! It was a fun question and got me to think more carefully about the micro/macro distinction and actually write something down. I might end up making a blog post out of this later, so thanks for that! :D
Apr 18	comment	What is the advantage of circular DNA in bacteria? closely related question: Is there an advantage to linear chromosomes?
Apr 17	comment	Is local equilibrium a reasonable assumption for evolutionary processes? I looked through Bell's publications, and I can't see a paper that suggests that he has been looking at this. Can you give an example?
Apr 16	comment	Lineage selection in plasmid evolution Thanks! So he is using lineage in the genetic sense as described by Wikipedia?
Apr 16	comment	Mathematical Modelling of Natural Selection If you have a strong mathematical and theoretical computer science bend then you might be interested in: Ecology and evolution through the algorithmic lens
Apr 16	comment	Structure of fitness landscapes in the NK model @WYSIWYG Thanks! Coincidently I just wrote an answer where the second part talks about some basic references on EGT. Alternatively, take a look around my blog or just email me at lastname<dot>firstname<at>gmail<dot>com
Mar 21	comment	Are ape communities more “anarchist” or “communist” in structure? I think your definitions of 'anarchism' and 'communism' do not reflect the actual political ideas at all. I think you were looking for the terms "selfish" and "cooperative" or "altruistic".
Mar 20	comment	Macromolecule levels in daughter cells after fission blog post discussion of how the cytoplasm can't just be modeled as a homogeneous mixture.
Mar 14	comment	Does becoming martyr have an evolutionary advantage? I think you incorrectly describe 'indirect reciprocity'. Indirect reciprocity just means that there is some sort of reputation-like effect that allows you to receive reciprocity not directly from the person you cooperated with but from others who see your good reputation (which you maintain by cooperating). The classic paper on this is Nowak & Sigmund (1998). For a general intro, I mention this and other mechanisms for cooperation in a TEDx talk & blog post
Dec 4	comment	Do memories have mass? there is a related discussion on CogSci.SE.
Oct 31	comment	Modern reference for Kropotkin's lazy bees @niallhaslam that is his full treatment of the subject. He says nothing more on it in terms of defining things.
Oct 14	comment	Can children restore brain cells? @nico I didn't mean to suggest that they were, otherwise I'd submit my comment as an answer. I was just going off a vibe I got from the question. I don't know anything about regeneration and so did not got beyond a comment.
Oct 14	comment	Can children restore brain cells? There is a misconception in your question about the absence of neurogenesis in adults. It is definitely present in adults as has been shown by a host of recent studies. If you want some technical details on neurogenesis or a question about what exactly changes in children at the end of critical period.
Sep 15	comment	How well does it actually work to surgically reroute the optical nerve? Have you looked at the forward citations of the articles: RPKS92 and MF89?
Sep 7	comment	Is there an advantage to linear chromosomes? @MCM if you could work that into an answer, I think it would be a decent one and I would enjoy reading it in detail. I was hopping for a more subtle answers (maybe related to life-histories), but I am happy with this, too :D.
Sep 7	comment	Is there an advantage to linear chromosomes? @MCM that was my first guess, too... especially with the other big difference between pro and euk being the tight space of nucleus. However, I couldn't think of why folding a very long circular genome would be fundamentally more difficult than a linear one (in fact it would make certain kinds of knots more difficult, avoiding potential damage). I also know a negative amount of biology so couldn't think of how to start the literature search myself :D.
Sep 1	comment	Macromolecule levels in daughter cells after fission This is a great starting point, thank you! I will search forward from here.
Aug 27	comment	Impact of Alan Turing's approach to morphogenesis Thank you for the answer. Any thoughts on the issue of handed-ness? Because a sperm entry point would still leave the egg achiral.
Aug 17	comment	Why apes started to contemplate and become altruistic? You should consider cogsci.SE which already has some questions in related topics of game-theory and evolution. The site has provided answers to similar questions (the particular Q was badly framed) both an evolutionary and psychology perspectives. If you do decide to ask on CogSci, take time to focus and scientifically frame your question. You can edit and flag for migration.
Aug 10	comment	Salmon returning to lay eggs I don't understand how those two hypothesis answer the question. They provide a mechanism for how to find their way back, but it doesn't answer if a given salmon has a genetic predisposition for going towards a certain spawn-site smell or if it remembers it from its' hatching. Both mechanisms could be consistent with either of the OPs interpretations (although the memory version makes more sense), can you explain why you think both these mechanisms operate interdependent of memory or genetic conditioning?