RE: [asa] Of motes and beams

The example is that humans have built-in abilities that can be used in
new situations without meaning that they have evolved. It is a question
of time scales. If a system can readjust itself to new circumstances in
short periods of time, that cannot be called evolution. Of course, the
time scale of readjustment is of the order of the lifetime of the
system.

Moorad

________________________________

From: Iain Strachan [mailto:igd.strachan@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2006 3:44 AM
To: Alexanian, Moorad
Cc: Vernon Jenkins; George Murphy; Don Nield; asa@calvin.edu
Subject: Re: [asa] Of motes and beams

On 7/18/06, Alexanian, Moorad <alexanian@uncw.edu> wrote:

I am not sure I understand. When a human encounters a new mathematical
problem and is able to develop a solution to it with the prior
information he/she has about mathematics, can we say that the individual
evolved or just that the human brain has the ability to "figure out" new
situations with already existing elements?

I wouldn't say that the solving of a mathematical problem, a sequence of
logical steps based on some informed guesses, bears any resemblance to
the evolutionary processes by which the immune system works. Unless you
solve mathematical problems as in a cartoon I once saw depicting
Einstein's blackboard, which had three lines on it: E = ma^2 (crossed
out) E = mb^2 (crossed out) E = mc^2 (tick). No-one solves maths
problems like that so to bring it up is an irrelevancy.

Iain

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Received on Tue Jul 18 09:23:53 2006