On Sun, Mar 15, 2015 Telmo Menezes <[email protected]> wrote: > Organisms apply pressure on surfaces, even if they are dead. This is just > a property of chunks of solid matter. Evolution did not create this > behaviour
I disagree. Evolution didn't select for that behavior but it did cause it, without Evolution no cadaver would exist and so there would be no pressure at that spot. > The question is simple: why can't organisms generated by evolutionary > processes possess properties that are not the result of evolutionary > pressure? > All the properties that an animal has are the result of evolutionary pressure although sometimes it's indirect, the property may not confer a reproductive advantage and it might even be invisible to Evolution but Evolution could still produce it if it's the product of some other property that does have an evolutionary advantage. Not every aspect of a building is the result of a decision by an architect, some features are just the byproduct of other decisions; if he wants to put a arch in a rectangular enclosure he's going to get a spandrel whether he wants it or not. It's the same with evolutionary spandrels, if intelligence confers an Evolutionary advantage it will be selected for and its byproduct, consciousness, will come along for the ride even if it has no Evolutionary advantage whatsoever. > > Because your argument hinges on assuming that this is not possible. > On the contrary, my argument hinges on the fact that this IS possible John K Clark -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
