4 ms·

In particular, [excerpts from Wikipedia] Gilder is a founder of the Discovery Institute, the leading think tank of the intelligent design movement. Gilder has w

by irickt 14y ago

In particular, [excerpts from Wikipedia] Gilder is a founder of the Discovery Institute, the leading think tank of the intelligent design movement. Gilder has written many articles in favor of ID and opposing the theory of evolution.

api 14y ago
A lot of engineers don't get evolution because engineers tend to think there is one best way to do something. How could evolution ever discover the "answer," they think? This is endlessly reinforced in school. You get right answers and wrong answers on tests, but that's because school tests are toy problems not real problems. In reality there are better answers and worse answers and worse-is-better answers and ugly-hack-to-ship answers. But think about the Church-Turing thesis a bit, and universal computation, and it becomes obvious that there are infinitely many ways of solving any arbitrary problem. They aren't all created equal, but there are also paths between them. Evolution works by discovering one answer and then following pathways through the fitness landscape to converge on better and better answers. Sometimes it actually does discover global optimums, or sometimes it just settles on something that works well enough given all the trade-offs. (In some problem spaces there is no clear global optimum.) But I see something more here. His opinions on gender are just batty. There is evidence for gender dimorphism in humans, but he takes that evidence and does a Forrest Gump run with it all the way off the field and into the bleachers. He also ignores huge numbers of counter-examples to his thesis and mistakes statistical means for universal laws.
- pi18n 14y ago
  Also; engineers should be aware of genetic algorithms which work so well they are used by NASA ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolved_antenna http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolved_antenna ). Anyone who doesn't understand evolution is a fact is basically being willfully ignorant at this point.
  - batista 14y ago
    OT, but: "[they] work so well they are used by NASA" is hardly an argument. NASA can also use piss poor technology. Remember that Challenger disaster? Plus, wasn't NASA that did the BS publicity stunt of the supposed discovery of "life based on arsenic"?
    - api 14y ago
      They've also been used to design analog-to-digital converters that work better than hand-designed A/D converters. The kicker is that we don't know exactly how they work, nor have we proven that they are "correct." But we've tested them enough that we're confident enough to ship them in products.

by irickt 14y ago

api 14y ago

A lot of engineers don't get evolution because engineers tend to think there is one best way to do something. How could evolution ever discover the "answer," they think? This is endlessly reinforced in school. You get right answers and wrong answers on tests, but that's because school tests are toy problems not real problems. In reality there are better answers and worse answers and worse-is-better answers and ugly-hack-to-ship answers. But think about the Church-Turing thesis a bit, and universal computation, and it becomes obvious that there are infinitely many ways of solving any arbitrary problem. They aren't all created equal, but there are also paths between them. Evolution works by discovering one answer and then following pathways through the fitness landscape to converge on better and better answers. Sometimes it actually does discover global optimums, or sometimes it just settles on something that works well enough given all the trade-offs. (In some problem spaces there is no clear global optimum.) But I see something more here. His opinions on gender are just batty. There is evidence for gender dimorphism in humans, but he takes that evidence and does a Forrest Gump run with it all the way off the field and into the bleachers. He also ignores huge numbers of counter-examples to his thesis and mistakes statistical means for universal laws.

pi18n 14y ago
Also; engineers should be aware of genetic algorithms which work so well they are used by NASA ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolved_antenna http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolved_antenna ). Anyone who doesn't understand evolution is a fact is basically being willfully ignorant at this point.
- batista 14y ago
  OT, but: "[they] work so well they are used by NASA" is hardly an argument. NASA can also use piss poor technology. Remember that Challenger disaster? Plus, wasn't NASA that did the BS publicity stunt of the supposed discovery of "life based on arsenic"?
  - api 14y ago
    They've also been used to design analog-to-digital converters that work better than hand-designed A/D converters. The kicker is that we don't know exactly how they work, nor have we proven that they are "correct." But we've tested them enough that we're confident enough to ship them in products.