[thechat] Evolution and complexity was:Re: READ AT YOUR OWN RISK

Judah McAuley judah at wiredotter.com
Fri Aug 23 11:46:14 CDT 2002


Erika Meyer wrote:
> It irks me to no end when people speak of evolution as if it's some
> kind of ladder to climb, as if more recently complex "evolved"
> creatures (such as a human) are somehow inherently "superior" to
> longer-surviving simpler creatures (such as a worm).

I would argue that evolution is a ladder to climb, although its a ladder
that is being constructed as its being climbed.  And it is, of course,
by no means a straight ladder.  But strangely enough, evolution seems to
  reliably produce more complex systems.  It does flow in a "direction".
  I would not presume to call that direction "superior", but it is more
complex and generally cabable of greater and richer interaction with
more elements because of that.

I'm just about done reading a book called "Complexity: the Emerging
Science At the Edge of Order and Chaos" by M. Mitchell Waldrop.  It's a
fabulous book about the founding of the Santa Fe Institute
(http://www.santafe.edu/) and the amazing work that's gone on there the
last 20 years.  In particular they have had a group that has worked on
developing what they call a new 2nd law of thermodynamics.  The classic
second law says that entropy (disorder) always increases in a system
over time.  This may be violated locally for short periods, but in any
appreciable time frame and scale, entropy increases.  However, in self
organizing systems (like living things, economies, social groups) there
appears to be a steady *increase* in complexity over time.  Why is that,
what causes it and how can we describe it?  A fascinating question.

Also, if anyone has an interest in evolution and has not read the
Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, do yourself and favor and pick it up
immediately.

Judah





More information about the thechat mailing list