Dear Klaus,
You are right. I expressed myself in a clumsy way with respect to evolution. The term “random selection” is imprecise. I was jumbling random drifting, natural selection, and I should probably have been more careful even at that. Evolution takes place when mutations occur. The process of mutation is random. Most mutations are not viable. On rare occasions, generally extremely rare, a mutation comes along that is suited to an open niche in the environment. Those are the mutations that do not prove to be non-viable. Mutations that thrive in an available niche survive to give rise to the next versions of species until they, too, mutate to become something yet again. It is not a case of “selection” in the case of anyone or anything intentionally “selecting” the mutated entity. Drift is better in that sense, and the creature that drifts into an appropriate place in a fitness landscape thrives. In this sense, viability and non-viability are extremely contingent on time, place, and context.
We both agree that evolution does not design. Design requires intention. The mechanisms that propel evolution do not exhibit intentional properties.
Yours,
Ken
Klaus Krippendorff wrote:
—snip—
Just a clarification:
Evolution is not explainable by random selection. In fact what is random is not selected. Some biologists call it random drifting.
The crucial feature left out in this discussion is that evolution proceeds by mutation that do not prove to be non-viable. Evolution affords negative explanations: one usually can explain why something didn't succeed, was not viable, but not why something succeeded.
Design aims at proposing something new with the claim that it will work, does well, provides benefits to others who need to be enrolled in the designers' projects. If designers would not have that future orientation they would indeed not be better than the weed that evolves in my garden.
—snip—
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