[MD] Quality Conversations

[ian glendinning]

As you know DM, I'm comfortable with downward (as well as upward)
causation, and there are no doubt neo-Darwinian mechanisms we don't
yet really know about ... (pure) Darwinism was just one species in the
evolution of evolution ...

The problem becomes when we see the downward causation as directed by
an "agent" (an "engineer") All I'm really saying is that the agent we
see is metaphorical, and the effects really "emergent", from causes
(two-way both).

Ian

On Sat, May 31, 2008 at 11:06 AM, David M <davidint at blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
> Engineering is a metaphor in
>>
>> evolution, but there is no engineer involved. Biological genes may
>> "engineer" brains, but they do not engineer intelligence - they
>> engineer biological pattersns more or less capable of supporting
>> intelligence. (I repeat my caveat, naturally.)
>>
>
>
> Hi Ian
>
> I see no reason to imagine that there is a grand designer in
> evolution, although it depends on how interconnected and conscious all
> things are, but we cannot currently get a clear idea about this. More
> interestingly I wonder how
> able life itself is able to engineer its own bodies. Darwinism
> assumes no feedback loop from active life to what it passes
> on to the next generation in bodily form and behaviour.
> But is this correct? Do bodies have more capacity
> to alter genes and their switches than is usually assumed.
> Some people seem to be exploring this possibility.
> The negative feedback loop that natural de-selection, as it
> should be called, offers is very limited and makes life's
> evolution out of the slime very unlikely, of course we are
> here, but is the Darwinian orthodoxy enough? We should
> keep asking.
>
>
> Of course, Sheldrake suggests another possible mechanism.
>
> David M
>
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