> > Only simple machines. More complex machines (eg the Intel Pentium > processor) show definite signs of evolutionary accretion, as no one > person can design such a complex thing from scratch, but rather > previous designs are used and optimised.
[ph] Right! Layered design is sort of a universal signature of learning processes, in this case the chip designers resourcefully adapting pieces of the old design in making new designs for new problems. Eventually any direction of development or learning runs into diminishing returns, either inherent in the design, or relative to competition with some other. I understand there's also a great deal of arguably creative machine design in chip design too, still accumulative in nature, but I don't think we have processors that 'design themselves', however, nor would they do very well with multiple disconnected parts with different operating systems that only communicated by dumping their waste products on each other... :-) that's the trick that organisms do so nicely and that our way of explaining them misses when we describe their functions and relationships in a self-consistent way. Unlike a logical medium, a physical medium tolerates inconsistently designed and behaving things and allows them to capitalize on each other's unintended side behavior and effects. Phil > -- > > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > ----- > A/Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) > Mathematics > UNSW SYDNEY 2052 [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Australia http://www.hpcoders.com.au > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > ============================================================ > 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
