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On 21/05/2020 17:22, Re Rose wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:mailman.4.1590078139.2046.extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">
<div>Ben, I should have clarified. I didn't mean evolution was
consciously creative, which the word "brilliant" evokes. I meant
the power of it is often surprising, and the solutions it
arrives at (I'm thinking of the Robby the Robot cleaning
algorithm - a program which creates a search path for a
autonomous robot in a maze, picking up trash in cubicles on the
path. Evolutionary algorithms find optimal pathways far faster
than human programmers do for the robot) are more efficient than
the ones directed human programmers some up with. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>And, I disagree that deliberate design works better than
evolution for all tasks. In fact I'd even go so far as to
vehemently disagree with that statement. Humans meddle and break
things, they overdesign, they "paper-over" or build around
errors, they make things that emit toxins and then ignore the
toxins, they cannot foresee unforeseen consequences, the things
they make wear out and become obsolete. Not always good. The
other part of that discussion would be the human engineering of
things like machines, and mathematics, and cities, and the like,
but even then I think evolution finds the best solution once the
process is started. We call that evolution "capitalisim" and/or
"free market". </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>It's amazing, though, what "good enough" can do - look at the
effectiveness and anti-fragility of all the
interacting biochemical pathways which make up metabolic
systems across species. Or the metabolic design of
extremophiles. Or the effectiveness of the simple honeybee
brain. I could keep naming biological miracles but you could
also just go outside and look at the delicate structure and
variety of color and fragrence (for communication!) of your
local flowers, or check out any bird, lizard or ant, or even
microbes - and try to design one from scratch. Evolution did all
that. I still think it's, well, if not truly brilliant, then
hugely awesome in the true sense of the word. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
You really don't think that deliberate design, given 3 billion
years, couldn't come up with much better solutions than evolution
has in the same time?<br>
<br>
I'm not saying that we <i>currently </i>do design things better
than evolution has, of course not. I'm saying that evolution, even
though it does come up with some marvellous things, also comes up
with some howlers, that looked at from the perspective of an
intelligent agent, are as dumb as a very dumb thing indeed, and
there's no doubt we could improve on them, and very probably will
one day.<br>
<br>
In fact, I think that one day, we or our descendants will redesign
biology in depth, right from the DNA upwards (almost certainly
ditching DNA itself in the process), and the result will be
organisms such as have never been seen before, with properties and
abilities that we would simple gape in wonder at. You think
evolution has produced some wonders? You ain't seen nothing yet.<br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Ben Zaiboc</pre>
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