> From: Tim Ikeda <tikeda@sprintmail.com>
> To: asa@calvin.edu
> Subject: Re: What does the creation lack?
> Date: Sun, Oct 28, 2001, 11:09 PM
>
> About the "collapsing of wave functions" and "quantum tweaking" notions
> of extra-natural guidance in biological evolution...
>
> How is this any different from moving a rock from point-A to point-B
> or dropping that rock on a couple slugs as part of an effort at cosmic
> animal husbandry? If one can tweak wave functions such that one nucleotide
> base can be substituted, why couldn't one tweak a few more and have
> all the air surrounding a slug jump one centimeter away until it expires?
> That's got to beat Maxwell's demon anytime. Star Trek-style transporters
> would be a snap.
>
> Counselor Troi: "Captain! A giant space slug is about to engulf the ensign!"
> Captain Picard: "LaForge, get a transporter lock on that and set coordinates
> to beam it into a wall!"
> LaForge: "Oh no! The quantum molecular overthruster unbalanced the
> pattern buffers and tunnelled a new set of chromosomes into the
> slug in an energy-less information transfer event. It's evolving
> into a telemarketer!
> Expendable crew member: "Iyeeee!"
>
> The mechanism is irrelevant, possibly even in the case of natural,
> extra-terrestrial designers because we'd probably never know the details.
> The question isn't about which back door a "designer" would use to futz
> with a system, but whether a particular system can make the transformation
> from state-X to state-Y without help from outside the immediate system.
> If the system can't make the transition to where you want it to go without
> your tweaking, then I wouldn't say that it had "all requisite formational
> capabilities" or that such action wouldn't be "violating or overpowering
> the natural capabilities of any creaturely system." If you change
> probabilities to determine which slugs will live and serve your ultimate
> goals by evolving into the perfect, live-animal prop for a particular
> Star Trek episode (perhaps evolving photogenic beauty was at one time
> outside the formational capabilities of "pre-intervention" slugs),
> you're messing with natural capabilities big time.
The capabilities of a created system are not a black-or-white issue.
Besides 0 and 1, there is a full range of intermediate probabilities,
from big ones to transastronomically small ones. And the set of
probabilities for the success of a created system's actions or
transitions is given by the Creator.
Peter
> So what we're talking about here sounds like a classic variant of
> progressive creationism. Let's just call it that.
>
> Regards,
> Tim Ikeda
> tikeda@sprintmail.com
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