On 25 Feb 2010 at 16:00, Grant Holland wrote, in part: > And I like your quotes from von Neumann. About errors - we all know that > without DNA copy errors, there would be no species adaptation and no > evolution. So that's another difference: for living systems, errors can > be a salvation
given a *whole* lot of time, a *whole* lot of lost investment (that would almost surely be unacceptable to all but the most indulgently- funded engineers), and a definition of "systems" that is probably at least one, maybe two (three?), degrees further up the "levels of organization" hierarchy than any definition of "systems" appropriate here: > for engineered systems they are almost always a problem > to be eliminated. Or so it seems to me (who am no engineer, nor evolutioneer either; comments especially welcome from those who are). Lee Rudolph ============================================================ 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
