From: GBurch1@aol.com
Date: Sun Jun 18 2000 - 06:59:56 MDT
In a message dated 6/18/00 2:42:44 AM Central Daylight Time, random@qnet.com
writes:
> > > Of course, evolution can't make major breaks with past art.
> >
> > Hmmmm . . . I'm wondering how I got here, as I contemplate the bacteria
> under
> > my fingernails . . . .
>
> And your body still uses the same DNA code and many of the same proteins
> as that bacteria. Polyethylene strands could encode the data more
> compactly and robustly, but the legacy system can't be left behind.
> Evolution ain't gonna make stainless steel rats.
As I drifted off to sleep last night right after posting the thing about me
and the bacteria, I wondered whether you'd have a reply like this in my
in-box when I was having my coffee this morning. Of course, you're right,
and true breakthroughs require using a methodology of invention completely
different from natural selection.
On the other hand, sometimes incremental optimization IS a really good
developmental pathway. Having recently been critical here of General Motors'
lack of inventiveness, they HAVE been quite good at some examples of
incremental development. An example sits under the hood of my beloved
Corvette. The (now-ironically-misnamed) "small block" V8 that powers it is
the lineal, evolutionary descendent of the original small block first
introduced in 1955. But the current version has an almost four-fold increase
in absolute power output, weighs quite a bit less and gets three times the
gas mileage, making it arguably ten times as efficient as its original
ancestor.
To continue with this specific example, one could say that the
pushrod-activated valve operation of the Chevy V8 is a "local maximum", and
that it could never "evolve" into an overhead-cam engine. This is probably
right. But sometimes engineers are almost as subject to fashions of thought
as folks in "softer" disciplines. For years, people "in the know" have
assumed that overhead cam engines are inherently superior. However, when
Mercedes decided to get back into the racing engine business, they surprised
the world by making their Indy-winning machines "old-fashioned" pushrod V8s!
I do think that the most productive suite of design tools of the engineer of
the mid-21st century will include some powerful GA assistance. These tools
will allow the engineer to concentrate her mental energies on the most
creative aspects of the profession.
Greg Burch <GBurch1@aol.com>----<gburch@lockeliddell.com>
Attorney ::: Vice President, Extropy Institute ::: Wilderness Guide
http://users.aol.com/gburch1 -or- http://members.aol.com/gburch1
ICQ # 61112550
"We never stop investigating. We are never satisfied that we know
enough to get by. Every question we answer leads on to another
question. This has become the greatest survival trick of our species."
-- Desmond Morris
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