Re: virus: Re: virus-digest V2 #509

Eric Boyd (6ceb3@qlink.queensu.ca)
Tue, 14 Jul 1998 18:55:11 -0400


Hi,

sodom <Sodom@ma.ultranet.com> wrote:
> Plus, no discovery has yet to be made that would
> not be made by someone else along the way. We like
> to think that flashes of insight are all our own,
> and I see no eviudence to see that as the case.

I think I'll pass on a distinction meme that I acquired from Dennett[1] --
namely, there are two types of "discoveries", as it were. For example,
Newton's laws fit into the type of thing you are thinking of above.
Dennett calls them *forced* moves in Design space -- that is, given enough
time, we would have found them without Newton. To give a biological
example, *eyes* seem to be forced moves in animal design space -- whenever
a creature needs to move, it develops "eyes" of one type or another.[2]

But Dennett mentions another type of move in design space -- a good example
is The Eiffel Tower. It is here, now, certainly, and it was designed. But
if it's creator had never lived, would we have anything like it? Perhaps.
Probably not, though. Another common example is Shakespeare plays. If he
had never lived, we certainly wouldn't have them -- although we probably
would have plays which deal with the same issues. I don't remember
Dennett's term for them, but I shall call them "creative" moves in design
space.

As to *creative* "flashes" of insight, no, I don't think those occur
either. It's merely that every individual has a unique set of experiences
and meme's which combine in ways that are *chaotic* (i.e. deterministic,
but too complicated to predict in the long term)

ERiC

[1] _Darwin's Dangerous Idea_, Daniel Dennett

[2] Interestingly, many biologists speculate that bats experience their
"radar" in the same way we experience vision. Irregardless, their radar
*is* an alternative to eyes -- bats are the exception that proves the rule.