Richard Dawkins: Growing Up in the Universe Part 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5

Trouble with this torrent? You can also obtain this from the dedicated Richard Dawkins torrent server maintained by ResponsiveWeb LLC (www.responsiveweb.com) at http://216.128.88.40:6969/ ======================== This Growing Up In the Universe.torrent contains all 5 parts of the "Growing Up In the Universe" series by Richard Dawkins. If you wish to download these 1 part at a time, feel free to use the individual torrent links: Part 1: Waking Up in the Universe http://thepiratebay.se/tor/3898977/Growing_Up_in_the_Universe__Part_1__Waking_Up_in_the_Universe Part 2: Designed and Designoid Objects http://thepiratebay.se/tor/3898988/Growing_Up_in_the_Universe__Part_2__Designed_and_Designoid_Objec Part 3: Climbing Mount Improbable http://thepiratebay.se/tor/3898997/Growing_Up_in_the_Universe__Part_3__Climbing_Mount_Improbable Part 4: The Ultraviolet Garden http://thepiratebay.se/tor/3899001/Growing_Up_in_the_Universe__Part_4__The_Ultraviolet_Garden Part 5: The Genesis of Purpose http://thepiratebay.se/tor/3899004/Growing_Up_in_the_Universe__Part_5__The_Genesis_of_Purpose_ ======================== Growing Up in the Universe Growing Up in the Universe is a series of lectures given by Richard Dawkins as part of the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, where he discusses the evolution of life in the universe. The lectures were first broadcast in 1991, in the form of five one-hour episodes, on the BBC in the UK. The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science was granted the rights to the televised lectures, and a DVD version was released by the foundation on April 20, 2007. Contents: [in Quicktime .MOV format] Part 1: Waking Up in the Universe Part 2: Designed and Designoid Objects Part 3: Climbing Mount Improbable Part 4: The Ultraviolet Garden Part 5: The Genesis of Purpose Part 1: Waking Up in the Universe To start off part one, Dawkins discusses the amazing capabilities of the human body and contrasts these with the limited capabilities of computers and other man-made machines. He uses a small totem pole (which is used in ancestor worship) to illustrate the importance of studying our ancestors in order to understand how we've evolved. To contrast ease of reproduction with the difficulty of becoming an ancestor, Dawkins uses the example of paper folding to explain exponential growth. Dawkins then tells the audience that exponential growth does not generally happen in the real world - natural factors come into play which control the population numbers, meaning that only an elite group of organisms will actually become distant ancestors. In order to be in this elite group, the organism must "have what it takes" to survive and pass on their genes to offspring. The long chain of successful ancestors means that the probability of our existence is very small, and we are lucky to be alive. By turning down the lights and shining a small spotlight on a large ruler in front of him, Dawkins illustrates the darkness of the distant past and of the unknown future. After expounding on how lucky we are to be alive, and urging us not to waste the precious time that we have, Dawkins brings up the usefulness of science in aiding our understanding of the universe. He mentions the reply that Michael Faraday gave to Sir Robert Peel when asked about the use of science. Faraday's response was "What is the use of a baby?" Dawkins explains that Faraday was either referring to the vast potential of a baby, or to the idea that there must be something more to life than growing up, working, getting old, and dying. There must be a point to it all; Perhaps science can uncover the answers to our biggest questions. In order to shake off the "anesthetic of familiarity," Dawkins shows the audience a number of strange terrestrial organisms which he nicknames "Bi-Jovians," based on what we might call living organisms from Jupiter. He uses a scanning electron microscope to look at small organisms including mites, mosquitoes, and a bee being parasitized by a strepsiptera. Using a model of a eukaryotic cell, he discusses the mitochondria and presents the audience with a complicated diagram of the metabolic pathways. Dawkins suggests that we can also shake off the familiarity by stepping backwards in time. By using a single pace to represent going back 1000 years, he starts at year zero and takes four steps in front of his desk, going back to 4000 B.C.E. Pointing to a portrait of Homo habilis, he states that in order to go back to the time of habilis, he would have to walk about two kilometers. He has audience members hold up portraits of other human ancestors, telling them how far he would have to walk in order to get back to the time of each one. By imagining what an advanced alien species would think of humans if they were to arrive on Earth, Dawkins suggests that their science would be similar to ours. They would know about pi, the Pythagorean theorem, and the theory of relativity. However, Dawkins explains that the alien anthropologists would most likely scoff at our local, parochial religious beliefs. He then contrasts evidence-based beliefs with revealed, tradition-based, and authority-based beliefs. In order to explain the problem with beliefs in the supernatural, Dawkins conducts a small experiment with the audience in order to "find the psychic." Using a coin, he assigns half the audience to will it to land on heads, and assigns the other half to will it to land on tails. After each flip, the section of the audience that was wrong is eliminated from the experiment, and he repeats the experiment using the remainder. After eight coin flips, only one boy in the audience remains. Dawkins then asks the question "Is he psychic?" Obviously, because of how the experiment was set up, one person was bound to have been correct about the result of each coin flip. Dawkins argues that this is exactly how seemingly supernatural events occur in the real world, especially when the "audience" is the entire population of the planet. To conclude the lecture, Dawkins claims that there is nothing wrong with having faith in a proper scientific prediction. To illustrate this, he takes a cannonball which has been suspended from the ceiling with a rope, moves against the wall, and touches the cannonball to his forehead. He announces that he is going to release the cannonball, and that when it comes back to him, he is going to ignore his natural instinct to run because he has faith in his scientific prediction of what will happen - the cannonball should stop about an inch short of his forehead. He releases the cannonball, and his prediction is proved correct. Part 2: Designed and Designoid Objects Dawkins' second lecture of the series examines the problem of design. He presents the audience with a number of simple objects, such as rocks and crystals, and notes that these objects have been formed by simple laws of physics and are therefore not designed. He then examines some designed objects - including a microscope, an electronic calculator, a pocket watch, and a clay pot - and notes that none of these objects could have possibly come about by sheer luck. Dawkins then discusses what he calls "designoid objects", which are complex objects that are neither simple, nor designed. Not only are they complex on the outside, they are also complex on the inside - perhaps billions of times more complex than a designed object such as a microscope. Dawkins then shows the audience a number of designed and designoid objects, including the pitcher plant, megalithic mounds built by the compass termite, and pots made by trapdoor spiders, potter wasps, and mason bees. He examines some designoid objects that use camouflage, such as a grasshopper that looks like a stone, a sea horse that looks like sea weed, a leaf insect, a green snake, a stick insect, and a collection of butterflies that look like dead leaves when their wings are closed. Dawkins notes that many animals share similar types of camouflage or protection because of a process called convergent evolution. Examples of such designoid objects include the hedgehog and the spiny anteater (both of which evolved pointed spines along their back) and the marsupial wolf (which looks like a dog but is actually a marsupial). He illustrates the reason why convergent evolution occurs by using two small models of commercial aircraft. The reason they look similar isn't due to industrial espionage, it is due to the fact that they are both built in order to fly, so they must make use of similar design principles. Using a camera and a model eye, Dawkins then compares the designed camera with the designoid eye. Both are involved in similar processes - using a lens to direct light onto a film or a retina. Both the camera and the eye also have an iris, which is used to control the amount of light which is allowed in. Using a volunteer from the audience, Dawkins demonstrates the contraction of the human iris by shining a light into her right eye. The lecture then moves into an explanation of natural selection, which brings forth designoid objects. In order to explain natural selection, Dawkins first explains artificial selection by discussing the evolution of wild cabbage into broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, red cabbage, kohlrabi, and Brussel sprouts. He continues the discussion of artificial selection by explaining the evolution of the ancestral wolf into the many varieties of modern dog. Starting with the ancestral wolf, Dawkins imagines that everyone on one side of the room is breeding for small wolves, while everyone on the other side is breeding for big wolves. By selectively breeding the smallest or largest of each litter for a number of years, you may eventually end up with something like the Chihuahua on one side of the room, and something like a Great Dane on the other side of the room. Dawkins then introduces an Arthromorphs computer program (similar to the Biomorphs program[1]), explaining how it works while a volunteer uses the computer to selectively breed more and more generations. At this point, Dawkins switches from explaining artificial selection to explaining natural selection. In order to demonstrate natural selection in a computer program, Dawkins uses a program written by Peter Fuchs to simulate the evolution of the spiderweb. The program builds "genetic" variations of a parent web, as if the web was actually being built by a child spider. For each generation, a simulation is run which randomly generates flies - some of which will hit the web, and others that will miss it. The child web that is able to capture the highest number of flies is selected as the parent for the next generation of webs. Dawkins shows the audience the "fossil record" that the program recorded after simulating a large number of generations overnight. The web starts off very simple and inefficient, but by the end it has evolved into a web that is highly efficient and highly complex. This is the same process that has led to the existence of all designoid objects. Dawkins now discusses the most popular alternative to natural selection, which is known as creationism. He explains that creationists mistakenly believe designoid objects to be designed objects created by a divine being. Quoting from William Paley's Natural Theology, Dawkins discusses the argument from design using the example of the watch and the watchmaker. Even though designoid objects appear to be designed, Darwin proved that this is not the case. Although Darwin's theory was discovered well after Paley developed his watchmaker argument, Dawkins explains that the argument of a divine watchmaker was still a bad argument, even in Paley's day. Paraphrasing David Hume, Dawkins explains that anything capable of creating humans must itself be highly complicated. Thus, the argument from design actually explains nothing - "shooting itself in the foot." While it is true that designoid objects cannot come about by chance, evolution provides a non-random method of creation - namely, natural selection. After developing the argument against a divine creator, Dawkins examines a number of designoid objects that contain imperfections, which is something you would not expect to find in an object that is supposedly created by a divine being. Showing the audience a halibut flatfish, he explains how they evolved from an upright swimming ancestor with one eye on each side of the head into a bottom-hugging flatfish with a distorted set of eyes on one side of the body. Dawkins claims that this is poorly designed, as any proper engineer would design an organism more like a skate, which flattened out on its belly instead of on its side. This is an example of something you would expect from an evolved/designoid object, but not something you would expect from a created/designed object. Using labeled building blocks, Dawkins shows the audience how designed objects came to be. He starts off by placing the simple block on the bottom, and explaining that you don't have to start with a complex being, but can start with a very simple foundation. If you have a simple foundation, you can place the next block on top - the designoid block. From this block, you can get complex organisms. Only after complex designoid objects come to be can you get the final building block of design (microscopes, clay pots, etc). Part 3: Climbing Mount Improbable Part 4: The Ultraviolet Garden Part 5: The Genesis of Purpose ? Life makes the wonders of technology seem commonplace. So where does life come from? What is it? Why are we here? What are we for? What is the meaning of life? There's a conventional wisdom which says that science has nothing to say about such questions. Well, all I can say is that if science has nothing to say, it's certain that no other discipline can say anything at all. But in fact, science has a great deal to say about such questions. And that's what these five lectures are going to be about. Life "grows up" in the universe by gradual degrees - evolution - and we grow up in our understanding of our origins and our meaning. ? ? The present century is a tiny spotlight, inching its way along a gigantic ruler of time. Everything before the spotlight is the darkness of the dead past. Everything after the spotlight is in the darkness of the unknown future. We live in the spotlight. Of all the 200,000,000 centuries along the ruler of time, 199,999,999 centuries are in darkness. Only one is lit up, and that is the one in which we happen - by sheer luck - to be alive. The odds against our century happening to be the present century are the same as the odds against a penny tossed out at random on the road from London to Istanbul happening to fall on a particular ant. ? ? We do of course, have an ordinary life to get on with. We do have a living to earn. We've got to earn our living being a solicitor or a lavatory cleaner or something like that. But nevertheless, it is worthwhile also from time to time shaking off the anesthetic of familiarity and awakening to the wonder that is really all around us all the time. ? ? Natural selection - nature - is constantly choosing which individual shall live, [and] which individual shall breed. And the result, after many generations of natural selection, is much the same as the result after many generations of artificial selection. ? ? In any case, all creation, all design, all machines and houses and paintings and computers and airplanes, everything designed and made by us, everything made by other creatures, is only made possible because there are already brains put together as designoid objects - and designoid objects come about only through gradual evolution. Creation, when it does occur in the universe, is an afterthought. When creation appeared on this planet it came locally, and it came late. Creation does not belong in any account of the fundamentals of the universe. Creation is something that, rather late in the day, grows up in the universe. ? ======================== Thank you for downloading. Please seed in the name of education. Cheers, The Good Folks at ResponsiveWeb www.responsiveweb.com 1(888)RW2-HOST

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Porrfarfar (2007-11-23)

THANX!

smurfix (2007-11-28)

Seed please (for 1-5-combined)!

FuckYourReligion (2007-11-28)

I believe the seeder counter is incorrect; I know for a fact there is more than 1 seeder. We have relaxed the security settings on our network to support a broader scope of connections, this should alleviate any problems you may be having in connecting to our IP (216.128.88.40) to obtain the files in this torrent.

LinguaIgnota (2007-12-21)

Awesome upload. Thank you very much.

JebusKryst (2007-12-21)

This is great. I will seed this until my uplload ratio is x10, then someone else can take the batten

radio0o (2008-01-08)

Thanks for the torrent but to all those curious about this I'd suggest not wasting your time. Richard Dawkins is a pedant and seems to have some sort of agenda in every work he does. He seems to be more interested in convincing you of something than he is of informing you. This is not what the job of a "scientist" is. Avoid this man's work and keep yourself from losing IQ points.

Orcos (2008-01-13)

Dawkins is a formidable scientist and an excellent educator. These lectures are fascinating and vivid. Thanks for the up.

pbay4everskeefmail.com (2008-02-03)

"and seems to have some sort of agenda in every work he does"
and by coincidence, you are a creationist? or worse you believe in ID?

clockwisesunrise (2008-03-07)

big big thanks, i'll probably buy this eventually but as soon as i saw the ad for it i immediately opened pirate bay in another tab.

crudjunction (2008-04-06)

"Thanks for the torrent but to all those curious about this I'd suggest not wasting your time. Richard Dawkins is a pedant and seems to have some sort of agenda in every work he does. He seems to be more interested in convincing you of something than he is of informing you. This is not what the job of a "scientist" is. Avoid this man's work and keep yourself from losing IQ points. "
What sort of negative agenda could there be in teaching people about evolution? This isn't one of his works on religion, and it happens to be one of the most informative sets of videos one can watch on the topic.
ps i bet youre a creationist lol

nsofast (2008-04-08)

if your a creationist like radio0o, and you would very much like to remain a creationist, you would do well to avoid reason and brilliant men like dawkins

Y.Signal (2008-05-14)

disinformation

amberfail (2008-06-10)

Thank you so much for this upload.
This is the most fascinating and interesting educational material I've ever seen. Richard Dawkins is truly brilliant.
To anyone wondering whether to download this or not; by all means do. Dawkins manages to convey his knowledge in a way so anyone - and I hold myself as a benchmark for "anyone", seeing as I'm a middle school student genuinely uninterested in most scientific subjects, and I still find these lectures extraordinarily captivating - can easily understand it. There are no long, unintelligible Latin names, no complicated splitting apart atoms and unreasonably difficult-to-understand physical terms; in short, these lectures easily appeal to even the relatively ignorant viewer with little to no previous knowledge, and I believe that's an accomplishment of dimensions.
I recommend watching this as early on in your life as possible. Don't let the fact that it's educational or "nerdy" scare you off. It is by no means boring. In fact, it's quite the contrary. It's vivid, captivating, easy to sit through, and almost child-friendly. It's the kind of thing that you just don't want to end, and - lest we forget - it does the perhaps most important thing in the world: It makes you smart, gives you new knowledge. If that doesn't make it worth watching for you, I don't know what will.

roscopp (2008-06-30)

Thanks a lot for this. Recommend this to everyone.

roscopp (2008-06-30)

Radio0o, thankfully we don't live in a world where scientists can't have opinions. We need more people like Dawkins to stop people so easily swallowing the bullshit. Im not saying he's always right but if you prove him wrong on something im sure he would be glad. Now that is a scientist

Switch756 (2008-07-07)

Science is interesting, and if you don't think so you can fuck off. This torrent is amazing btw.
The hard work of one person, in this case FuckYourReligion for making this torrent, has done more than every prayer ever given, ever. Then again, prayer doesn't do anything so it's quite easy to out-do in comparison...but I'm at least glad we have people on this earth willing to do the hard work. Thanks again for this torrent.

Switch756 (2008-07-07)

Adults with imaginary friends are stupid.

kaszany12 (2008-07-10)

Thank you.

burthman (2008-07-23)

thanks a lot!

Deputy276 (2008-08-02)

Thank you for this upload. Very informative!!!
Dep

raphao (2008-08-03)

somebody have the subtitles?
it could be in english

donpedro (2008-08-09)

This should be mandatory to watch in all public schools.

mogto (2008-08-23)

"Richard Dawkins is a pedant and seems to have some sort of agenda in every work he does."
That agenda is, of course, teaching people about natural selection, and just how powerful the idea of evolution is. And as "professor for the public understanding of science", it's his job.
By the way, this is the freely available "online version" - 320x240, H.264 - and not a DVD rip. Still great, but just to let everyone know the resolution is a bit lower.
Many thanks to the uploader and the seeders. (It downloaded at about five times the officially rated speed of my connection!)

mogto (2008-08-23)

raphao:
There's a transcript here:
Maybe that can help. Or if you buy the DVDs, they have subtitles.

kr0niXzX (2008-09-30)

THanks for the torrent, truly excellent subject.

Cain303 (2008-12-01)

Good stuff!

GodOfFuXXX (2009-01-01)

Anything to prove single deity religions lie is fine by me. This and many videos like this continue to prove evolution is fact and not just an idea. Now if we could just get this and education, intelligence wasn't taught to be looked down upon and feared by major religions we would be a better society.

atheistmafia (2009-02-25)

Outstanding...thank you!

MVinOC (2009-04-26)

amberfail
Thanks for your informative comments I wish everyone could leave comments like yours
FuckYourReligion
Thanks for the upload and hard work you put in posting this torrent for us all to enjoy
you all may like this other movie its really good not your ordinary documentary

MVinOC (2009-04-28)

mov files
Quality is not good but watchable [PS3 Tversity]

MVinOC (2009-04-28)

p.s can someone please shut that kid up....
jk crying babies reminds me that im just a grown up sperm a product of my horny dad and slutty mom :0)

evillusion (2009-09-30)

Thank you for sharing this knowledge. It's so important!
Peace.

dubblue (2009-11-16)

super torrent. everyone should download it. we all might learn something then.

bubbabead (2009-12-27)

Very interesting series
Thankyou a lot

Peterc340 (2010-01-06)

I was never a believer and I always thought people who huddled into churches were missing the entire truth of the matter.
However, after listening to Richard Dawkins' audio books, as well as many others, it becomes clear just how DANGEROUS religion is to our continued survival and progress as a species.
I'm shocked at how many people fall for this supernatural garbage, even in the face of all the huge, steaming, stinking piles of NO EVIDENCE!
Thanks FuckYourReligion for this series! I thank my non-existent God for people like you that have thought this through enough to stop worshipping thin air.
Here's some more good stuff I've found on TPB (and elsewhere) to download on this topic:
Richard Dawkins - The God Delusion (audio book and PDF)
Christopher Hitchens - God is Not Great (audio book and PDF)
Sam Harris - The End of Faith (audio book)
Craig Winn - Prophet of Doom (audio book)
Michael Shermer - Why People Believe Weird Things (4-part audio series)
Keep the [lack of] faith!

dubblue (2010-08-28)

Superb. One of the best downloads on The Pirate Bay. Everyone should see this, and understand what total rubbish religion really is. Richard Dawkins has the ability to put into simple reading/audio material what most of us are really thinking, but don't know how to express. More of this please.

Croix1979 (2010-10-30)

Tusind tak. Much appreciated

Croix1979 (2010-11-03)

Link to lecture on the development and evolution of the eye by two swedish scientists (in english):
http://www.r2.co.nz/20080520/eric.asx