[ExI] Anti-transhumanist crap on Kuro5hin and related.

[spike]

> bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of scerir
> Subject: Re: [ExI] Anti-transhumanist crap on Kuro5hin and related.
> 
> Giovanni ha scritto:
> I think it is kind of silly to try to "explain"
> evolution in terms of "chance". Chance is a code-word
> for our ignorance. Saying that evolution is driven
> by probabilistic events is not really an explanation
> of anything. It just shows we don't understand what
> really goes on and we recur to statistical arguments
> as the best possible way to model what we don't
> fully understand.
> 
> #


This discussion needs to bring in Steven Jay Gould's notion of contingency
as a factor in evolution.  Gould's concepts are sometimes described as the
role of chance, however his use of contingency can better be described as
being the opposite of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry's notion of
parallel evolution.  Roddenberry suggested that given two similar planets,
with about a 1G field, about 1 atm pressure and similar chemical composition
in both the air and land, mostly water on the surface, etc, both planets
would eventually evolve humanoid lifeforms.

Gould's notion was the opposite: given the same initial conditions, the two
planets would evolve *completely different* lifeforms.  The evolutionary
paths would be unpredictable, with unpredictable outcomes.  In my thinking,
Roddenberry's notion is only good for explaining why it is that on his show,
all the aliens look like humans except with the pointy ears or the wrinkly
forehead.  Gould was right.  Evolution can be better understood with the
ideas developed by chaos theory.  It is unpredictable. 

spike