Re: Who's Burden of Proof?

Have you heard of mixed strategies, or genetic algorithms?

In stochastic optimization there are situations where selecting
strategy A with probability p(A) and strategy B with probability p(B)
gives a better result than selecting purely strategy A or strategy B.
That's a mixed strategy.

Genetic algorithm are optimization/search methods which mimic natural
selection. They are used to solve complex optimization problems with
many variables.

In both techniques chance plays an important role.

Steve, as a sometime design engineer (but mainly a researcher for the
past 20 years) I agree with your characteristics of design. Whether
they transfer from a finite human designer to an omnipotent, omniscient
Divine Designer, though, is IMO problematic.

I have maintained for some time that I believe God employs randomness
in genomes as a means of enabling life to adapt to changing
circumstances. One might ask why God doesn't interact more directly
with His creation, and I don't have an answer (does anyone?) But
Scripture does document that He interacts very directly with humans.

On Friday, November 28, 2003, at 01:37 PM, Steve Petermann wrote:

> Mark wrote:
>> what about quantum computing?
>
> I don't know about quantum computing, but I would assume that to be
> useful,
> the indetermancies of quantum events would need to be managed in some
> way.
> If that is true, then chance is not the dominant or controlling force.
>
> The reason I said "dominant" is because a good designer would not
> necessarily rule out incorporating chance in their designs. There
> might be
> cases where chance could interject some novelty into the design. That
> novelty could then be tested and its results accepted or rejected
> based on
> the purpose of the design. However, if chance is the dominant mode of
> design, then the designer could not assure that the goals of the design
> would be met.
>
> Steve Petermann
>
>
>
>
>
Bill Hamilton Rochester, MI 248 652 4148
Received on Sun Nov 30 21:53:16 2003