Re: Evolution increases the computational ability of organisms.

r norman wrote:

<snip top for brevity>


There is a lot of argument here over misreadings.

1. I agree that there is a natural tendency of evolutionary systems
(i.e. complex adaptive systems capable of some form of evolution) to
exhibit instances of ever greater complexity with time. That is, the
most complex outliers will fall farther and farther out on the fringe.
2. This tendency for the extremum to grow with time can be considered
a "natural law" or "universal principle".

3. This is no way implies that there is a "directed evolution"
towards complexity. It in no way implies that all or most or the mean
or the median will increase in complexity. It only implies that there
will arise some individuals of greater and greater complexity.

4. In the same natural course of things, those more complex (and
eventually more intelligent) individuals will exert a greater and
greater influence over the entire system and appear to be far more
significant in the scheme of things than might be otherwise expected.

5. In the same natural course of things, those most complex and
intelligent individuals will acquire self-awareness and then believe
themselves to be the be-all and the end-all of all creation, the
purpose for which the entire universe was created so that all
evolution was an inexorable move to produce ..... ME!


This is a plausible hypothesis, but there's nothing new in it. It's SOS (same old ***). The old paradigm. It's classical, hard core, and strictly by the book. It's the received view.

Living things are dynamical systems. They follow deterministic trajectories through phase space. They are poised at the edge of chaos, but they are not themselves chaotic. But evolution theory treats living entities statistically? Complexity is a diffusion process? Something doesn't add up. There's too big a gap between these points of view. If I were you, I'd worry about it.


--dkomo@xxxxxxxx

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