Re: EVOLUTION: Re: Extropianism & Theology

From: ASpidle@aol.com
Date: Mon Mar 01 1999 - 08:14:49 MST


In a message dated 99-03-01 02:46:55 EST, Harvey writes:

<<
 This is a common claim, that random evolution won't produce complex
 organisms very fast. It seems like a million monkeys typing on
 keyboards which will never turn out the works of Shakespear. Most
 people don't realize how easily things can get organized at the
 molecular level.
>>

Thanks, Harvey, for that wonderful and familiar example (my major in college
was materials science with a strong dose of metallurgy). That's another
reason I'm so attracted to Stuart Kaufmann's work because he uses the metaphor
of "phase changes at the edge of chaos" to explain emergent phenomena

You made my point exactly. I am not saying that there's not enough time for
evolution to work, but rather there must be some pre-existing order (your
cubes) upon which Natural Selection can work more efficiently (not randomly)
and thus produce us from blue green algae in only 3.4 billion years.

Your thoughts are organized like mine and I would appreciate more of your
opinions.

Adrian



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