Glen, 

Because that's how evolution works?  Development constrains the exploration
space of evolution, and evolution would not be so sucessful if it did not. 
Epigenesis, man.  Epigenesis.  

(};-])  (winking guy with big eyebrows and a smug smile)

 Nick 




Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology, 
Clark University ([email protected])
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
http://www.cusf.org [City University of Santa Fe]




> [Original Message]
> From: glen e. p. ropella <[email protected]>
> To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[email protected]>
> Date: 2/10/2010 12:10:43 PM
> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Buzz arrives
>
> Thus spake Steve Smith circa 10-02-10 10:54 AM:
> >> And that is?  Can you describe "that very same road"?  I'm serious. 
> >> As far as I can see its near-random.
>
> I thought we would have learned from biology that successful strategies
> involve a large sampling of the possibilities.  So, it's not the
> seemingly random sampling Google's doing that befuddles me.  That seems
> totally rational, even if it is random.  What confuses me is why humans
> insist that various processes (from biological pathways to organisms to
> corporations) always must have some single teleologically constricted
> purpose.  Why does everything always have to boil down to some
> pigeon-holed agenda?  Why do we have to divine THE cause, THE goal, THE
> motivation?  Why can't it be complex?
>
> And I'm serious, here, too.  I can't tell you how often I get completely
> baffled looks when I describe what Tempus Dictum does.  Those linear
> thinkers who seem to dominate investment forums immediately write me off
> and stress that if a business doesn't FOCUS, it will surely fail.  I
> make some attempts to describe breadth-first search and the surprising
> efficacy of large variance sampling; but I always fail in that
> description. [grin]
>
> -- 
> glen e. p. ropella, 971-222-9095, http://agent-based-modeling.com
>
>
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