GBurch1@aol.com wrote:
>
> In a message dated 6/17/00 11:31:41 PM Central Daylight Time, random@qnet.com
> writes:
>
> > Of course, evolution can't make major breaks with past art.
>
> Hmmmm . . . I'm wondering how I got here, as I contemplate the bacteria under
> my fingernails . . . .
And your body still uses the same DNA code and many of the same proteins
as that bacteria. Polyethylene strands could encode the data more
compactly and robustly, but the legacy system can't be left behind.
Evolution ain't gonna make stainless steel rats.
> > No amount
> > of Diesel engine design evolution will give you a Stirling cycle.
> > Design does have its place.
>
> Probably not -- at least in a reasonable amount of time.
100 million monkeys at 100 millions keyboards...
> But GAs will become
> better and better tools for optimizing rough design concepts. Maybe even I
> could become an engineer with sufficiently advanced evolutionary design
> software!
Yep, great tools, but only tools until they become so smart you have to
give them civil rights. Eris Drexler suggested to me many moons ago
that perhaps advanced engineering programs could be created which did
their job well, but had no self awareness or personality. I asked how
this would be different from many "meat" engineers, and he laughed,
saying "Now be nice..."
-- Doug Jones Rocket Plumber, XCOR Aerospace http://www.xcor-aerospace.com
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