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I didn't downvote but I wouldn't be so sure either. Design as a figure of speach can mean a lot and, baring the discussion about determination and free will, cr
by choosername 11y ago
I didn't downvote but I wouldn't be so sure either. Design as a figure of speach can mean a lot and, baring the discussion about determination and free will, creating and making can feel very passive. Intent is often open ended.
- SilasX 11y agoI downvoted because it's tiring and pedantic to raise the objection every time someone says "designed for" in the context of biology. Yeah, we get it: evolution has no designer. It doesn't matter, because the semantic space is well understood. The figure of speech "designed for X" just means it's narrowly optimal at X -- it's good at X at the expense of being bad at not X. Hence explanations like, "A cat's digestive system is designed for meat: it has enzymes Q and Z which are really good at breaking down flesh but also react poorly to plant matter." We get the point. We don't need a reminder that, "well, the scientific consensus is that the cat digestive system arose without an intelligent designer".
- gertef 11y agoThat's a very good definition of "designed" that I hadn't seen before.
- SilasX 11y agoThanks. I didn't mean to suggest it was a documented definition, so much as "the characteristic that makes it 'feel' like a human-designed thing" and makes us want to refer to it that way, even when knowing it wasn't.