[MD] Ever redefining self

[ian glendinning]

Spandrels et al,

This concept is a cliche (a meme) in evolutionary circles.

My view is a plea for the "engineering view" of reality (I am an
engineer after all).
Engineering = Ingenuity.
Ingenious = "Pragmatic ways to get there from here" - to bridge gaps.
(And to link up some threads - Rocket science = just engineering with a vision.)

Anyway, the problem with the Engineering view of how reality came to
be is that it seems to fall into the admission of a creative force -
the blind watchmaker - intetionally creating the reality we see. It is
of course just a metaphor for the "emergence" from many levels of
interacting complexity - which "seem as if" they have design intent.
("Seem as if" vs "causality" .... see Paul Turner)

I notice biologist E O Wilson, whose Consilience I'm only just
reading, frequently calls on the engineering view to imagine how a
biological problem would get solved - the line being that evolution is
naturally efficient, and solutions to problems will naturally tend to
be the best, most efficient engineering solution to any given problem.
The human brain is the archetypical example. One cannot imagine
creating artificial consciousness, without first creating an
artificial brain, with artificial life demands on it. Arificial
Evolution = Engineering. It would look pretty much like the real
thing, even if it wasn't made of meat.

That was a party political broadcast on behalf of Engineers everywhere :-)
Ian