[ExI] Falsifying evolution/was Re: Really? and EP

[Damien Broderick]

At 01:15 PM 4/22/2009 -0700, Dan wrote:

>I can't read Damien's mind (yet!), but I think he was getting at how 
>fast and loose some EP hypotheses seem to play -- much as earlier 
>sociobiological ones did -- among EP's fans.

Yes, of course. Only morons deny that variation and selection provide 
the *substrates* of phenotypes and behavioral repertoires. But--let's 
not get too excited about applying this insight at perhaps 
inappropriate levels. Would it be profitable to explain, say, 
economic and artistic impulses and behavior by direct application of 
string theory--or even, at a slightly less basic level, nucleons and 
electrons? To question the validity of such an attempt need not imply 
reverting to Fire/Air/Water/Cheese models of the moon's structure or 
of the political motives driving the Apollo Program.

Damien Broderick