RE: virus: Re:MS Flip Software Price

Robin Faichney (r.j.faichney@stir.ac.uk)
Sat, 18 Oct 1997 20:26:30 +0100


> From: David McFadzean[SMTP:david@lucifer.com]
>
> Wait a minute, are sharp teeth "for" rending flesh?
> Are they "for" eating meat? Are they "for" survival
> by co-opting the unfortunate herbivore's energy
> reserve? Or, are they just a set of random mutations
> that benefitted the corresponding genes? Does the
> truth of one statement preclude the truth of any
> other in this list?
>
With your scare quotes, that's fine. The problem
tends to arise when the quotes are forgotten, and
sometimes, it seems, their significance too.

> >which they were operating. There's no logic there,
> >other than that implicit in every element of objective
> >reality.
>
> If logic is "implicit in every element of objective
> reality" how on earth can you say "There's no logic there"?
>
I mean, no logic other than that already embedded
in the various disciplines that deal with such things.
I guess, maybe, what I'm saying is that logic
is not validly applied at this level of explanation.
The only sensible explanation for phototaxic
behaviour is an evolutionary biological one, not a
logical one -- except to the extent that evol bio
is logical, but then we can take that forgranted,
can't we?

> Evolution does behave as if
> it is a rational designer without forethought (if you can
> imagine such a beast).
>
That's like saying a genius behaves like an extraordinarily
intelligent idiot.

Robin