tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15194226.post8128962478522445981..comments2024-03-08T01:24:09.884-07:00Comments on Matt's Sci/Tech Blog: Why do some things evolve, and some don't?Matt Billehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18230930494550861704noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15194226.post-56567989733702536942010-01-18T09:15:14.849-07:002010-01-18T09:15:14.849-07:00Rob, I apologize for taking so long to respond. I ...Rob, I apologize for taking so long to respond. I expanded on this my review of Gould's book Wonderful Life: <br />Stephen J. Gould argued in his book Wonderful Life that if you "replayed the tape" of evolution a million times, you would likely never hit on the combination of events which produced humans. Now Gould was a smart guy, no doubt smarter than me (and much more educated and focused), but I think Gould took too lightly the fact that that intelligence is always an advantage in evolutionary competition. (Not an unmitigated advantage - intelligence requires support for a large brain, with all the requirements that imposes - but an advantage nonetheless.) <br />I suspect that, even if no intelligence was influencing evolution, if it ran long enough on a planet of diverse environments like ours, you would eventually produce - every time - a species with an intellectual level sufficient to make the breakthrough to consciousness and an awareness of the spiritual dimension of life. I think the evolutionary game is intended to produce such species - and, even if it's not intended, it will anyway. <br />So, Gould's admitted brilliance notwithstanding, I think there is something else going on.Matt Billehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18230930494550861704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15194226.post-17805516166507664732010-01-05T20:57:21.053-07:002010-01-05T20:57:21.053-07:00Great read, I would LOVE for you to expand on this...Great read, I would LOVE for you to expand on this statement "As a Christian, I think the eventual rise of an intelligent, self-aware being with a sense of spirituality may be somehow inherent in all evolutionary systems which run for a long enough time"....just curious...Rbrtdsntshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00286172298979652279noreply@blogger.com