Well, then I read you wrong. Sorry. N
From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Russ Abbott
Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2011 10:14 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] What evolves?
Lots to respond to. First of all, Nick, why do you say I am discarding the distinction between living and non-living. I don't recall saying that.
To Dave's point:
By "fitness" I mean nothing more than 'void filling' ... There is no "process" anymore than there is a "process" when water in a flooding river 'fills voids' on the other side of the levee.
That still leaves open the question of the scientific explanation for how voids are filled. Is there a physical force that produces that result? In the case of water going downhill, the force is gravity. What's the analogous force (or other explanation) for void filling in evolution? What's the scientific explanation for how it happens?
-- Russ Abbott
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Professor, Computer Science
California State University, Los Angeles
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blog: http://russabbott.blogspot.com/
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