From: Sarah Marr (sarah.marr@dial.pipex.com)
Date: Tue Sep 17 1996 - 05:55:05 MDT
At 01:32 16/09/96 -0700, Chris Hind wrote:
>Nature is a far better engineer than any of us. Nature
>engineers more complex and exotic stuff although much slower. We engineer
>quickly but bulky and we will eventually completely surpass nature's
>engineering strengths but not now. The reason nature is a greater engineer
>is because it looks at a problem in infinite directions. Human engineers
>look to accomplish a certain task with a few variables but nature looks at
>infinite variables...
This is an interesting, and common, angle on nature: anthropomorphization
coupled with linguistic personification. Within a Darwinian framework I find
it hard to consider the workings of nature as a gestalt entity; rather, it
seems to be a series of interacting events in which there is no prior
assessment of effect, no plan. So 'nature' doesn't look at a problem in any
direction at all.
The 'nature' of geophysical activity is merely a pseudo-chaotic amalgam of
atmospheric and tectonic interactions. The 'nature' of biological
development is merely a day-to-day battle between individual organisms, and
between organisms and their environment.
If 'nature' could be personified, since 'she' does not care about effect,
'her' approach to engineering and it's environmental effects seems
remarkable similar to that of humankind in many ways: do something and see
what happens, it'll sort itself out in to a balance point after a while.
Sarah
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Sarah Kathryn Marr
sarah.marr@dial.pipex.com http://dialspace.dial.pipex.com/sarah.marr/
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