From: Stathis Papaioannou (stathisp@gmail.com)
Date: Wed Apr 18 2007 - 04:51:18 MDT
On 4/18/07, Larry <entropy@farviolet.com> wrote:
Not to mention the universe is intrinsically intelligent. The real change
> has been in the efficiency of intelligence.
>
> 0) The universe got here somehow
>
> 1) The slow intelligence of random chemical reactions
>
> 2) gives us simple self replicators
>
> 3) gives us simple animals/plants and sexual reproduction
>
> 4) gives us simple nervous systems
>
> 5) gives us complex nervous systems and complex tool use
>
> 6) gives us beings able to rapidly custom design beings
>
> Our brains are nothing but speed up evolution. The birth and
> death of firing patterns replacing the birth and death of life
> forms.
>
> Its built into the circuitry that way all through us. At each
> level nerve pulses compete to make it to the next, the
> "dominant" pulses generating negative feedback that supresses
> the lesser. That way your hand on the stove pulls you away from
> worrying about your overdue bills for a moment.
That's an impressively elegant synthesis. The only problem I have with it is
that it implies a hierarchy in evolution, progressing towards ever greater
(faster, more complex, more concentrated) intelligence. This may be just
prejudice on my part, but I have long assumed that those books on evolution
I read as a kid which put Man at the top of the heap were a throwback to
pre-Copernican times. It would be neater if the collective intelligence of
bacteria in principle could defeat any more complex organism.
Stathis Papaioannou
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