[asa] Nudging Evolution

As I have been arguing for the hypothesis of front-loading evolution over the years, not too long ago, it has occurred to me that the term "front-load" has the ability to mislead people into thinking I have argued that evolution is a deterministic process, such that everything we currently see around us was programmed to be as it is as a consequence of the originally front-loaded state. This misperception then causes people to think front-loading is an old, discredited view of evolution. But that is not the case.

To demonstrate this, I have just run across a design approach that is very, very similar to the approach I talk about and have labeled as "front-loading." It's a social engineering approach that is becoming increasingly popular known as "nudging."

I outline some of the similarities between nudging human behavior and front-loading evolution here:

http://designmatrix.wordpress.com/2009/09/11/nudge/

Mike

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Received on Sun Sep 13 20:22:02 2009