Discussion Guide for Margulis & Sagan: Acquiring Genomes

We will be organizing the discussion on Margulis & Sagan around the following questions. Please be ready to discuss them in class.

• What is Darwin's view of the origin of the species? (What is Darwinian Evolution?)
• What does Darwin not explain? What are the other main evolutionary views of the origin of species?
• What is symbiogenesis? Explain three significant examples at different levels of organization.
• How does symbiogenesis occur? What are the major stages of symbiogenesis?
• What is the connections between symbiogenesis and speciation?
• How does symbiogenesis explain the existence of the different parts of a eukaryotic cells?
• How does symbiogenesis explain the evolution of multicellular organisms (in particular, their development processes)?
• What about the origins of species of insects? Mammals (such as cows)? Other organisms?
• What are the major criticisms of this book? (See the prologue by Ernst Mawr and the review.)
• What is the connection between speciation and software development?
• How do we create new software systems? How are our systems "evolved" and "designed"? Which predominates? Under what circumstances?
• How compatible are standard software development processes with formal approaches to software development and security?
• Consider: How do living systems survive? What strategies do they use? How much do they rely on "perimeter defenses"? What is their basis for trust?
• What is the relationship between symbiogenesis and trust?