> On Monday 26 November 2007, Mike Tintner wrote: > > But what do people see as wrong or defective - as distinct from weak > > - with human nature? >
This question prompts me to raise the idea of "local maxima" in gradual processes. When improvements or adaptations are only gradual, if you get a passable solution, it may be impossible to change to an obviously better solution by way of gradual improvements. Some evolutionists (I particularly like S J Gould's comments on this) use this outlook to show why humans don't have wheels - we'd have to ungrow our legs first - or why we have such stupid designs for our eyes. I mean, what sort of idiot would design an eye to have the optic nerve running in front of the photoreceptors? Cephalopods such as squiddies, who have great vision, have a much more sensible eye design with the optic nerves running behind the photoreceptors, so they don't have blind spots. Is our crappy eye design a weakness or a defect? It's more accurate to say that it's a sub-optimal, but locally optimal design. Nonetheless, it's handy to use the shorthand that it's a defect. (It's also my favourite method of arguing with evolutionists, who are thankfully fairly rare in this country - forget whether there's fossil evidence or not, if humans were deliberately designed, then the designer must have been a complete idiot not to use the best designs available). The same could be said for many aspects of our frail bodies, from our vulnerability to infectious diseases and mutations, to our susceptibility to problems arising from our posture and our high mortality rates during pregnancy and childbirth. Likewise, although our intelligence and emotional capacities are substantial, it would be nice to tinker with the limitations of our memories, our tendencies to turn too easily to, envy, jealousy, aggression, and other anti-social sentiments, and finally, our propensity for mental illnesses. These are all the result of sub-optimal designs, and would do well to be improved. Whether they're weaknesses or defects could be viewed as wordplay -- Olie ----- This list is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: http://v2.listbox.com/member/?member_id=4007604&id_secret=68902344-afebf3
