Innovation (Introduction)

by dhw, Tuesday, May 07, 2013, 20:15 (4017 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: There is no reason in Darwin theory to cause an appearance of humans, or for that matter to have complex life appear from bacteria. I see no pressure at all from the records we study. Bacteria are still very successful, and if we'd leave the apes alone, they would be also.-We agreed long ago that evolution itself was not NECESSARY, so there is no point in using lack of necessity as an argument for the uniqueness of humans, as you have been doing. Ditto the descent from trees, since so many organisms have developed new forms to cope with or to take advantage of new environments.
 
Darwin attempted to find out not why but how evolution happened, and you and I have always agreed that all forms of life descended from earlier forms. I've suggested, and you have also agreed, that the most likely cause of innovation is an intelligent mechanism within the genome which is able both to adapt and to invent in response to environmental conditions. We both disagree with Darwin that changes were due to random mutations, and that they were always gradual. A totally separate question, however, is how this mechanism came into being, which brings us to the other part of our correspondence on this thread:
 
dhw: [...] intelligent energy is the force within materials that enables organisms to innovate. Your God is first-cause energy which has been intelligent for ever and ever, so define him and it! The concept I'm proposing also implies structure, but instead of this being imposed from outside by a single inventor, it is created from within.-DAVID: Yes God is OUTside, but He created the INside to adapt all by itself. We don't need your concept, because it did not self-start. God started everything. Unless you'd like to imply that your concept began itself, somehow?-We need my concept of the "intelligent cell/genome/DNA" to explain how evolution proceeds. As for the "start", if we dispense with chance as an option, we have two scenarios to compare: 1) First-cause energy is your single entity that has been eternally intelligent (faith required); first-cause non-conscious energy formed and was within many entities (matter), in some of which the energy developed intelligence (faith required). 2) Your single intelligent entity manipulated matter from outside to create the universe and life; the many intelligent entities cooperated from within to create the universe and life. 3) Your single entity sometimes allowed the "intelligent genome" to do its own thing, but also went on manipulating matter to create some species, especially humans (dabbling from outside); the many entities went on cooperating from within to create all species, including humans. 4) Your single universal intelligence is hidden but has its own purposes; there is no single universal intelligence, but only individual intelligences which continue to cooperate.-Each of these has a basic premise that requires faith (which is why I remain agnostic). The rest follows on quite logically. The first raises all kinds of questions about the nature and purpose of your single entity; the second is confined to the realities we know of (the universe and life). What would Ockham say?