Re: Design

From: joedees@bellsouth.net
Date: Fri Aug 24 2001 - 02:49:12 BST

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    From: <joedees@bellsouth.net>
    To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2001 20:49:12 -0500
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    Subject: Re: Design
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    On 23 Aug 2001, at 11:33, Dace wrote:

    > > On 08/21/01 14:23, Dace said this-
    > >
    > > >That the design comes about blindly and unconsciously through
    > > >mutation
    > and
    > > >natural selection doesn't make it any less of a design.
    > >
    > > In fact, it makes it _not_ a design at all. And that is the point.
    > >
    > > - Wade
    >
    > I'm using the term in the sense of "a preliminary sketch or outline
    > showing the main features of something to be executed" or "an
    > underlying scheme that governs functioning, developing, or unfolding"
    > (Webster's). What makes neo-Darwinism so attractive is that it keeps
    > the design while disposing of the designer. This way, we can imagine
    > we've had some sort of radical break from our superstitious past while
    > covertly maintaining the same comforting belief. It's the old
    > *somewhere-something's-in-charge* meme.
    >
    Actually, the template is indeed 'designed' by having various
    mutations to precursors of it subjected to the winnowings of natural
    (environmental) selection; what is jettisoned is the idea that this
    gradual ecological biospheric self-sculpting involves a conscious
    deific intentionality.
    >
    > Ted
    >
    >
    >
    > ===============================================================
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