Review of Spetner's book (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, November 28, 2014, 00:25 (3648 days ago) @ dhw


> dhw: More fudge. There is no autonomy of any kind if the organism automatically implements programmes. There is autonomy if the organism initiates programmes of its own. (Why have you changed programmes to “recipes”?)-Your thinking is like pulling taffy. When you initiate driving your beloved old VW, do you originate everything under the hood? Much if it is set up for you. With an IM, as I think about it, it initiates a modification by delving into available programs and guidelines, and the modification is kept consistent with the original patterns. 
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> dhw: What is “the scheme of things”? Life will go on without us, just as life has gone on without the 99% of species that have become extinct. No species is necessary to “the scheme of things”, but all the current species are “here”.-But we are not like anyone else. We are different in kind, and not an expected result of the evolutionary process we see. Back to Adler again.-> 
> dhw: The point of the IM hypothesis is not to read God's mind, but to explain how the higgledy-piggledy bush of evolution might have grown from the first living cells. “Purposeless chance mechanism”? Theistic version: God designed the mechanism to start it off, so it's not chance.-Agreed-> dhw: Purpose? Every innovation serves to aid survival, propagation, and/or making life as enjoyable as possible for its own sake.-Start life just for the fun of it? Why bother?- -> dhw: God's purpose? To provide himself with a show, to produce art for art's sake, to conduct a scientific experiment? You can't tell me why he wanted to produce humans, so why should I have to tell you why he started evolution?-Of course I can tell you. He now has thinking individuals with whom he can communicate. All that time alone in eternity is boring. I'm giving a reason in your style.