Following up

For those who did not read Andrew's comment to the previous blog post (Darwin article from The Economist), here it is.

Well, that last paragraph is certainly out of nowhere. Weird that the article is called "Unfinished Business," when the author thinks we are ready to "halt ... natural selection in its tracks," whatever that could possibly mean.
I also don't see how the discovery of new restrictions on the directions evolution may take makes it any less materialist or any more purposeful of a process. I guess I don't really get what the point of this article was supposed to be, other than a broad history of Darwinism, with the field of economics loosely associated with it a couple of times.- Andrew
Mon Mar 16, 06:30:00 PM

I understand the gist of the objection, but not the specifics. The "unfinished business" part relates directly to taking Darwin beyond the merely material (although not random, all evolutionary explanations to date deal with strictly material outcomes). I think the unexplained appreciation of beauty is the example used. The thrust of this article (and others) on the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth is that understanding the evolutionary process and its mechanisms may allow us to either remove ourselves from that process, or make more deliberate use of the process. Whether either of these approaches is desirable is another conversation entirely.

Of course, the point of the article was to provide a broad overview of Darwin's thought and how others have used that to move to the next logical steps through further observation. And to note the continuing fear and fight reactions that Darwin's conclusions still cause. This is an article aimed at those with very limited understanding of the evolutionary process and what that really entails. People such as moi.

Darwin, US of A, morality & beauty

This is an article from The Economist magazine about a month ago.

Sorry, it is long and dense.

It is also interesting and quite scary at the same time. It helps explain much of what we see happening in our world today.

We may be on the cusp of a real revolution.

Happy birthday, Hannah

Now our oldest grandkid is 10, quite a bit older than in this picture.

So, Jason, how did this happen?

Happy Birthday (& other stuff)

Happy birthday, Henry and Jack (and Hannah, almost).

Here's a picture of you all having fun. I wonder where this was taken? Maybe you just saw Murphy.





As to the "other stuff", we are having people over for an easy dinner tonight. Penny thought it would be a good idea if I grilled the veggies on the barbie. I agreed - it was forecast to be quite warm.

But the patio was still covered with hard, icy snow, so out I went to shovel a path through the snow to the BBQ. In the middle of (ok, latter half, but still) winter. In a golf shirt and jeans. No jacket.

Pretty Canajun, eh?
Oh, yeah, we hit at least 15 C today. Golf weather.