Re: Darwinian evolution=Armageddon?

From: dkomo (dkomo871_at_comcast.net)
Date: 07/06/04 

Date: Tue, 6 Jul 2004 03:48:22 +0000 (UTC)

John Wilkins wrote:

> Michael Ragland <ragland37@webtv.net> wrote:
>

[snip]

>
>>I'm also curious where you all fall on the biological determinism
>>debate. My "guess" is most of you are neither hardliners or the opposite
>>where there is no aspect of our biology which isn't somewhat
>>biologically determined. The question is how determined and under what
>>circumstances it can internationally violently flare up.
>
>
> Assuming you meant aspect of our *psychology* I am a strong determinist
> - nothing we do or say is not strongly biased by our biological nature.

Interesting that our biological natures have strong random causations
(oxymoron?) -- mutation, crossover and the serendipitous process of
development -- yet you claim our psychologies, which are outgrowths of
our biology, are determined. So there are no random elements whatsoever
within our psychologies analogous to mutation and crossover? Is there
no possibility that memes could undergo spontaneous and random change as
they "evolve" within a human psyche, or as they are transmitted from one
mind to another?

I think you are entirely neglecting the effects of "noise" in human
communication, and inside human nervous systems. It may be that our
"signals" swim inside an unceasing torrent of noise which continuously
alters those signals and makes a joke out of determinism. Furthermore,
I think if it were true that there is such strong determinism
influencing our psychology, cultural evolution would never take place,
any more than biological evolution could take place if all organismic
variation was purely deterministic.

      --dkomo@cris.com

        

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Darwinian evolution=Armageddon?
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