Re: Evolution is alive and well

George Murphy (gmurphy@raex.com)
Fri, 09 Oct 1998 14:49:16 -0400

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James Taggart wrote:
>
> Concerning the discussion of physics as the "prototype of science," I
> wonder if you are not taking too simplistic a view of what physics is.
> Physics is quite precise when you are making predictions about a small
> number of bodies under the rules of Newtonian mechanics (or even quantum
> mechanics). When you have a large number of bodies, physics is no more
> helpful in explaining behavior than evolution is in explaining the origin
> of body plans or geology is in explaining when the next volcano is going to
> erupt.

A bit of an overstatement. Statistical mechanics can make some extremely
good predictions & explanations for many-body systems.

George L. Murphy
gmurphy@raex.com
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/

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