Re: Mastropaolo's probabilities are science.

Tim Ikeda (tikeda@sprintmail.com)
Mon, 12 Oct 1998 22:57:50 -0400

Steve Clark makes the analogy...
>> [...] On tv, I often see a large tumbler randomly spilling out
>> balls with numbers. The balls come out randomly. However, if
>> someone stood there and only accepted the balls with numbers she
>> wanted to see, the resulting numbers do not reflect the randomness
>> of the process. Selection, by definition is not random. It is
>> simply wrong to say that evolution theory reflects a random model.
[...]

J.J. McKinzie asks:
> One question about this analogy. Who chooses the correct balls?
> Doesn't this process require a some intelligent agent to make
> the proper selection?

In the case of hand-picking balls that fall out of a basket, an
intelligent agent would work. However, in the case of evolution,
this might also be accomplished by the survival of those organisms
which happen to be carrying the "correct balls". I don't think
one can assign "intelligence" as the proximate cause of such
selection.

Regards,
Tim Ikeda
tikeda@sprintmail.hormel.com (despam address before use)