I believe that my answer to your question is in my earlier post titled,
Irreducible Complexity. Let me know if that does not clarify my opinion on
this.
Steve
At 08:35 PM 11/23/96 -0600, you wrote:
>At 08:18 PM 11/23/96 -0600, Steve Clark wrote:
>>>Again, it may only be due to my non-experience with the subject, but HOW CAN
>>>THIS BE? A proto-digital watch (or a proto-mousetrap or a proto-motorcycle,
>>>for that matter) doesn't strike me as being functional AT ALL. It is true
>>>that I may only be ignorant of possible explanations, but one grows
>>>suspicious when the alleged explanations aren't forthcoming. . .
>>
>>This is a good question Andy. I believe the confusion here lies in the
>>requirement for the proto-structure to have a similar function as the final
>>structure. Why is this required? If we can agree that a proto-mousetrap
>>does not have to necessarily trap mice, then this confusion is minimized.
>>For a simple exercise, let's look at evolution in the forward direction.
>>Say you take a motorcycle and add wings to it. It is now an airplane, but
>>it never "evolved" into an airplane by gradually improving on its ability to
>>fly.
>
>Steve,
>
>If the original function of the proto-mousetrap isn't catching mice, then
>what would be the force impelling it in the direction of a wholly new
>function? I've never seen natural selection credited with this kind of
>foreknowledge.
>
>Chuck
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------
>Chuck Warman <cwarman@wf.net>
>"The abdication of Belief / makes the Behavior small."
> ----Emily Dickinson
>
>
____________________________________________________________
Steven S. Clark, Ph.D . Phone: 608/263-9137
Associate Professor FAX: 608/263-4226
Dept. of Human Oncology and Email: ssclark@facstaff.wisc.edu
UW Comprehensive Cancer Center
CSC K4-432
600 Highland Ave.
Madison, WI 53792
"Now how does one alter the charge on the niobium ball? 'Well at tha
t stage', said my friend, 'we spray it with positrons to increase the charge
or with electrons to decrease the charge.' From that day forth I've been a
scientific realist. So far as I'm concerned, if you can spray them then
they are real. Ian Hacking, Representing and Intervening, 1983
____________________________________________________________