Glenn, We're all muddling through, that seems to be the point. The question of course is, who is willing to admit it. :) I'm extremely skeptical of characters like this Loeb dude who pretend not to be. Isn't his statement simply yet another attempt of many to resurrect Positivism? Given that science as practiced today is pretty much a poorly disguised shrine to Positivism, that leaves me wondering, like you I think, what Lima-de-Faria is now offering besides a more bedazzling / befuddling version of mechanics über alles.
"Scientifically, what we really need is a particular concrete multi-scale situation that's determined at the lower scale and indeterminate at the higher scale. The trouble is that our best and smallest scale theory (quantum mechanics) also alows the dual. In some ways, it's deterministic and in other ways it simply circumscribes the wiggle room for the mysterious mechanisms underneath. " I'm going to argue very strongly that it is undetermined at *all* scales. The more one studies complex systems the more one sees that what we thought were clear theories established on the basis of next scale down knowledge are in fact approximations that inevitably miss some of the richness that only reveals its depth at the scale we're currently studying. What a relief when contrasted to the dark vision of LaPlace et.al.! I've written a bit more (too much really) on this general theme here: http://milesparker.blogspot.com/2009/10/tale-of-two-conferences.html keep on muddling! Miles On Feb 22, 2010, at 8:31 AM, glen e. p. ropella wrote: > > More amateur considerations of Lima-de-Faria's "Evolution without > Selection". I'd appreciate any clarifying comments. > > http://ropella.net/~gepr/archives/2010/02/22/autoevolutionism/index.html > > -- > glen e. p. ropella, 971-222-9095, http://agent-based-modeling.com > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
