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Evolution doesn't design, clearly. But its solutions are not determined by chance alone, either. The shapes of the solutions are partly determined by the contou
by mtdewcmu 12y ago
Evolution doesn't design, clearly. But its solutions are not determined by chance alone, either. The shapes of the solutions are partly determined by the contours of the available solution space. It's sort of like pressing soft material into a mold, I think. The trajectories of the individual bits of material are governed by chance; but after applying and releasing pressure, the macroscopic object invariably forms itself in the image of the mold.
- JoeAltmaier 12y agoSure but the 'mold' is a complex surface with many local maximums. Once evolution reaches a local maximum, then drunkards walk is stalled - it moves incrementally in any directin - things get worse. It cannot leap across the gap to another local maximum; ok its unlikely it will make the leap. So we get different populations with wildly different solutions to the same problem.