> No, no, a thousand times no. Evolution _in no way_ implies a
> direction. This is a common fallacy fostered within the ones doing
> the implying.... (Uh, yes, often mystics....) (See Gould for the
> fully-fleshed exposé of this fallacy.)
...which book?
> There are local effects upon the universe brought into being by
> consciousness, i.e. this post you're reading, but to claim that
> consciousness is a requirement of any naturally developmental
process
> is, well, a conjecture without factual basis, at best.
...here you make a common assumption about the nature of the universe
which arises directly from the biases inherent in science from Newton
and on through logical positivism. There are no local effects, all
effects are global.
...this error is akin to the discussion of pharmaceutical "side
effects". We identify a particular effect [or event stream] as primary
and all other effects become secondary, teriary, etc.
...look at the example you cite of a local effect - the post to which this reply is adressed. The proximal cause of the post in your scheme is your person, sitting at a computer and constructing a synthesis of ideas and concepts, the proximal effect is a series of symbols on your screen. But you've done more than that - much more - you set in motion a set of biochemical cycles and responses which affectet your incarnate form. By this process you altered the arrangement of subatomic forces into meaningful configurations doubly encoded - into a symbol of machine technics and a semiotic lingual system. Further actions spread your ideation to the screens of [X] people [where X is the number of virians paying attention]. This arrengement of symbol - which process subsumed the intentional reconfiguration of reality at levels from the quantum to the biochemical to the mechanical, technological, and societal and, in a larger sense ecological [taking into account the construction of the computer and related infrastructure as a contribution to the process]. ...This iterates itself through my process of response to you and any attendant commentaries by interested virians. To the extent that this discourse is of interest to the participants it encourages the elaboration of the communications networks on which it depends. This is an intricate process which reconfigures the planet daily as we devote resources and brainpower to expand infrastructure. Our actions in corporate have effects on the environment in which we dwell - both physical and symbolic effects. This changes the environment in which we and others must manouver, which alters tha balance of characteristics necessary to flourish in the environment.
...nothing happens in isolation from anything else. The idea that it
does is a construct that facilitates the play of a particular, very
complex game.
-psypher
>
> I would argue that there is no implication to evolution at all. And
> it's damn time we stopped trying to work up any. There it is. It is
a
> fact, and as such, the ground under our maximal quest.
>
> - Wade, who knows nothing about set theory either.
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