The limitations of science (The limitations of science)

by dhw, Wednesday, June 30, 2010, 10:14 (5259 days ago) @ George Jelliss

GEORGE: I'm not so sure that computers are the product of "intelligent design". Judging by all the updates I get from Microsoft I suspect computers have evolved, by natural selection of ideas that worked competing with ideas that didn't do so well. Alan Turing may have set down the basic general principles, but today's computers were not "designed" by him, nor by Bill Gates.-I'll take this comment on both its levels. First, the twinkle in George's eye. I often have the same feeling myself with all the updates, junk, spam, and things that go bump in the night. On the other hand, the evolution of computers as a serious image leaves you no alternative to belief in design. You begin with a mechanism that was assembled by a conscious intelligence, and built into this mechanism is the potential for an (almost) infinite variety of possible developments. The computer is totally inconceivable without the mind that originally gave rise to it, whereas its evolution is largely governed by mutations, adaptations to a changing world, and natural selection (though I sometimes wonder if there is any selection at all).--
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