From: Kevin Freels (megaquark@hotmail.com)
Date: Tue Jun 17 2003 - 08:39:48 MDT
lol! Thanks for saying what I was going to say. Now I don't have to type it!
----- Original Message -----
From: "Damien Broderick" <damienb@unimelb.edu.au>
To: <extropians@extropy.org>
Sent: Monday, June 16, 2003 10:49 PM
Subject: irritable evolution syndrome
> Just out of annoyance at the world, I'll throw in this unsolicited
comment:
>
> >If the tape of life on Earth was replayed, humans might not evolve again.
>
> I believe this bizarre analogy was coined by S. J. Gould. It always
enrages
> me (literal-minded human that I am). If the tape were replayed, how could
> it *possibly* show anything except what was already there, except maybe
> grainer? Tapes don't rewrite themselves, not even 1960s' computer tapes.
> The analogy should surely be: `if the evolutionary "program" of life on
> earth were re-run using different starting conditions, or with additional
> factors introduced and other deleted, X might not evolve again.' But I
> suppose most people don't grok `program' even in this simple sense, and
> somehow *do* grasp what's meant, even though the analogy makes no sense at
> all. Weird, the human mind. Why, if the tape were replayed, I bet we'd end
> up with a mind that--
>
> Damien Broderick
>
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