And the moral of the message is that science is conservative in all universes.
At 04:08 PM 04/20/2000 -0400, MikeBGene@aol.com wrote:
>Somewhere, in another parallel Universe‰¥Ï.
>
>
>Biology departments everywhere adopt a literal teleological
>perspective (instead of our universe's metaphorical use)
>where origin events (but not regularities) are interpreted
>teleologically. It generates pretty much the same level of
>science, perhaps more since they anticipated the existence of
>biological codes and molecular machines before we did.
>
>Yet a small group of scientists and philosophers dispute
>the teleological interpretations. They note those interpretations
>are heavily dependent on the metaphysics and game rules of their
>science and claim history is too ambiguous to rule out a
>non-teleological origin. They seek to explore such a radical
>thought. Two members of this movement successfully set up
>the "Darwin Institute" at a small materialistic college. Although
>the college is committed to materialism, its departments adhere
>to the teleological approach out of concern for their reputation
>among other colleges and universities. So, when they
>catch wind of the Darwin Institute, they label it as "stealth
>eugenics" and seek to shut it down. After all, they argue,
>it is good to discriminate against any eugenics movement that
>would deny the important assumption of teleology. "If you
>don't stop them," argues professor Smith, "soon we'll have
>to teach our students that rape has been hard-wired into
>our brains as part of their proposed mechanisms."
>
>In this universe, my counterpart is equally concerned about
>this attack on academic freedom. And strangely enough,
>the counterparts of the rest of you on this board are also
>as concerned and disapproving of these attempts. At least
>in *that* parallel universe they are. ;)
>
>Mike
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Apr 20 2000 - 16:43:27 EDT