[extropy-chat] intelligent design homework

[Jef Allbright]

The Avantguardian wrote:

>
>  I AM a professional biologist and although I can prove that, given an
>  existing organism, evolution can proceed without the existence of
>  God, nothing that I know, nor experiments that I can conceive of with
>  existing technology, can prove that evolution can proceed without
>  some a priori life form.
>
<snip>
 >
>  I am not talking about the synthesis of amino acids in the lab, I am
>  talking about the spontaneous generation of de novo life in vitro.
>

It is interesting that as a biologist, you draw the line of "knowing 
evolution works" at the edge of the biological realm. 

Why not broaden your view to include pre-biological evolutionary processes?
Examples include the formation of galaxies, the production of heavier 
elements from hydrogen via the life cycle of stars, the emergence of 
water and more complex molecules.

Why not broaden your view to include post-biological processes?
Examples include the growth of shared culture, from social organization 
in apes, to tribes, city-states and nations, and the recent example of 
the growing global information network.

While the mechanisms of evolutionary development are various and 
increasingly diverse, a common thread of persistence translated to 
growth via synergetic advantage within non-equilibrium systems runs 
throughout.

There is no "proof"  or "knowing" available in any ultimate sense, but I 
will claim that it is useful to explore and abstract such large-scale 
patterns and that they can be applied to our own (subjective) models of 
the world toward achieving our own (subjective) goals.

- Jef
http://www.jefallbright.net