tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13030925.post5328472154510826021..comments2024-01-25T13:46:11.967-06:00Comments on The Bronze Blog: On Randomness 2Ryan Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14750814560493466382noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13030925.post-20863117822379656502009-03-30T12:21:00.000-05:002009-03-30T12:21:00.000-05:00Take a bunch of measurements and munge them until ...Take a bunch of measurements and munge them until you get a normal distribution?MWchasehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08195851187187771113noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13030925.post-6692448762952569512009-03-30T10:27:00.000-05:002009-03-30T10:27:00.000-05:00Anonny: We ought still to be able to distinguish b...Anonny: <I>We ought still to be able to distinguish between random (unpurposed) mutations and changes caused by a designer.</I><BR/><BR/>How can you do that if you can't make any predictions about the designer?Bronze Doghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10938257296504189967noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13030925.post-32379125624172480292009-03-30T03:50:00.000-05:002009-03-30T03:50:00.000-05:00You miss one point. We are able (sometimes) to pre...You miss one point. We are able (sometimes) to predict the actions of humans because we <I> are </I> human. The designer of the biosphere, if any, is much more complex than us, and it would not be surprising if we failed to predict or understand its actions. We ought still to be able to distinguish between random (unpurposed) mutations and changes caused by a designer.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13030925.post-45898223315943764822009-03-29T23:03:00.000-05:002009-03-29T23:03:00.000-05:00Left off a bit I intended to include about the ord...Left off a bit I intended to include about the orderly aspects of evolution. :PBronze Doghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10938257296504189967noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13030925.post-41196402777023859362009-03-29T22:50:00.000-05:002009-03-29T22:50:00.000-05:00While I can see what you mean about how certain as...While I can see what you mean about how certain aspects of how genes might mutate over time, I think it misses the point of evolution.<BR/><BR/>As far as the process of evolution goes, it really doesn't matter where these mutations come from, and even if you could predict the mutations physically, you wouldn't be able to predict them using evolution itself. The important part is the selection part, that's what evolution deals with.Dark Jaguarnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13030925.post-31108887439230474982009-03-29T21:32:00.000-05:002009-03-29T21:32:00.000-05:00I recall a similar idea from one of the Opinionate...I recall a similar idea from one of the Opinionated Voyager Episode Guides... The ship had hit a negative space wedgie that rearranged its insides. Two characters (I forget which two) were trying to navigate, and one (Tuvok, I suppose) was trying to do things logically. The other (Neelix?) said that 'oh, it's totally random and illogical, so logic won't work'. At this point, SF Debris started ranting about how there's either some logic to the wedgie, in which case a methodical search would seem to make sense, or there isn't, and it's not like any particular way to navigate would work better than any other, so they might as well search methodically.<BR/><BR/>I think that might be portraying a similar thing, in that it's an appeal to other ways of knowing, except without the knowing. Or something. In summary: "You can't approach this problem with logic. Use this approach. Any attempts to refute the efficacy of this approach are mired in logic and thus doomed to failure."MWchasehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08195851187187771113noreply@blogger.com