Darwin's Dangerous Idea - Evolution and the Meaning of Life

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186 PRIMING DARWIN'S PUMP ences, however, between the products of human engineering and the products of evolution, because of differences in the processes that create them. We are just now beginning to get the grand processes of evolution into focus, by directing products of our own technology, computers, onto the outstanding questions. CHAPTER EIGHT Biology Is Engineering 1. THE SCIENCES OF THE ARTIFICIAL Since World War II the discoveries that have changed the world were not made so much in lofty halls of theoretical physics as in the lessnoticed labs of engineering and experimental physics. The roles of pure and applied science have been reversed; they are no longer what they were in the golden age of physics, in the age of Einstein, Schrö-dinger, Fermi and Dirac.... Historians of science have seen fit to ignore the history of the great discoveries in applied physics, engineering and computer science, where real scientific progress is nowadays to be found. Computer science in particular has changed and continues to change the face of the world more thoroughly and more drastically than did any of the great discoveries in theoretical physics. —NICHOLAS METROPOLIS 1992 In this chapter I want to trace some of the overlooked and underappreciated implications of a central—I venture to say the central—feature of the Darwinian Revolution the marriage, after Darwin, of biology and engineering. My goal in this chapter is to tell the positive side of the story of biology as engineering. Later chapters will deal with various assaults and challenges, but before they steal the limelight, I want to make out the case that the engineering perspective on biology is not merely occasionally useful, not merely a valuable option, but the obligatory organizer of all Darwinian thinking, and the primary source of its power. I expect a fair amount of emotional resistance to this claim. Be honest: doesn't this chapter's title provoke a negative reaction in you, along the lines of "Oh no, what a dreary, Philistine, reductionist claim! Biology is much more than engineering!"? The idea that a study of living forms is at least a close kin to engineering has been available since Aristotle's own pioneering investigations of organ-
188 BIOLOGY IS ENGINEERING The Sciences of the Artificial 189 isms, and his analysis of teleology, the fourth of his causes, but only since Darwin has the idea begun to come into focus. It is quite explicit, of course, in the Argument from Design, which invites the observer to marvel at the cunning interplay of parts, the elegant planning and exquisite workmanship of the Artificer. But engineering has always had second-class status in the intellectual world. From Leonardo da Vinci to Charles Babbage to Thomas Edison, the engineering genius has always been acclaimed but nevertheless regarded with a certain measure of condescension by the mandarin elite of science and the arts. Aristotle did not help matters by proposing a distinction, adopted by the medievals, between what was secundum naturam, according to nature, and what was contra naturam, against nature, artificial. Mechanisms—but not organisms—were contra naturam. Then there were the things that were praeter naturam, or wnnatural (monsters and mutants), and die things that were super naturam—miracles (Gabbey 1993). How could the study of what was against nature shed much light on the glories— yea, even the monsters and miracles—of nature? The fossil traces of this negative attitude are everywhere in our culture. For instance, in my own home discipline of philosophy, the subdiscipline known as philosophy of science has a long and respected history; many of the most eminent and influential philosophers these days are philosophers of science. There are excellent philosophers of physics, philosophers of biology, philosophers of mathematics, and even of social science. I have never even heard anybody in the field described as a philosopher of engineering—as if there couldn't possibly be enough conceptual material of interest in engineering for a philosopher to specialize in. But this is changing, as more and more philosophers come to recognize that engineering harbors some of the deepest, most beautiful, most important thinking ever done. (The title of this section is taken from Herbert Simon's seminal book [1969] on these topics.) Darwin's great insight was that all the designs in the biosphere could be the products of a process that was as patient as it was mindless, an "automatic" and gradual lifter in Design Space. In retrospect, we can see that Darwin himself could hardly have imagined, let alone supported with evidence, the refinements and extensions of his idea that have permitted later Darwinians to go beyond his own cautious agnosticism about the origins of life itself, and even the "design" of the physical Order his idea presupposed. He was in no better position to characterize that Order than he was to describe the constraints and powers of the hereditary mechanism; he just knew there had to be such a mechanism, and it had to exploit the Order, whatever it was, that made "descent with modification" not only possible but fruitful. The century-plus of subsequent focusing and extending of Darwin's great idea has been punctuated by controversy, amply illustrating, by the way, the reflexive extension of his idea to itself: the evolution of the Darwinian memes about evolution has been not just accompanied, but positively sped along, by competition between ideas. And as he hypothesized with regard to organisms, "competition will generally be most severe between those forms which are most nearly related to each other" (Origin, p. 121). Biologists themselves have not been immune to the heritage of negative attitudes towards engineering, of course. What is the hankering after skyhooks, after all, but the fond hope that a miracle will somehow come along to lift us above the cranes? Continued subliminal resistance to this feature of Darwin's fundamental idea has heightened controversy, impeded comprehension, and distorted expression—while at the same time propelling some of the most important challenges to Darwinism. In response to these challenges, Darwin's idea has grown stronger. Today we can see that not only Aristotle's divisions but also other cherished compartmentalizations of science are threatened by its territorial expansion. The Germans divide learning into Naturwissenschaften, the natural sciences, and Geistesiwissenschaften, the sciences of mind, meaning, and culture, but this sharp divide—cousin to C. P. Snow's Two Cultures (1963)—is threatened by the prospect that an engineering perspective will spread from biology up through the human sciences and arts. If there is just one Design Space, after all, in which the offspring of both our bodies and our minds are united under one commodious set of R-and-D processes, then these traditional walls may tumble. Before proceeding, I want to confront a suspicion. Since I have just granted that Darwin himself didn't appreciate many of the issues that have to be dealt with if the theory of evolution by natural selection is to survive, isn't there something trivial or tautological about my claim that Darwin's idea survives all these challenges? No wonder it can keep on spreading, since it keeps on changing in response to new challenges! If my point were to crown Darwin as author and hero, there would be merit to this suspicion, but of course this is not primarily such an exercise of intellectual history. It doesn't really matter to my main thesis whether Darwin himself even existed! He could be, like the Average Taxpayer, a sort of mythical Virtual Author, for all I care. (Some authorities place Homer in that category.) The actual historical man does fascinate me; his curiosity, integrity, and stamina inspire me; his personal fears and flaws make him lovable. But he is, in a way, beside the point. He had the good fortune to be the midwife for an idea that has a life of its own, precisely because it does grow and change. Most ideas can't do that. In fact, a great deal of rhetoric has been expended by partisans on both sides of the controversies about whether Darwin himself—St. Charles, you might call him—was a gradualist, an adaptationist, a catastrophist, a capitalist, a feminist. The answers to these questions are of considerable historical
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Daniel C. Dennett
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Contents Preface PART I: STARTING I
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10 CONTENTS 3. Blocking the Exits 4
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14 PREFACE dozens of conversations:
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18 TELL ME WHY Is Nothing Sacred? 1
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22 TELL ME WHY it seems, by Darwin'
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26 TELL ME WHY 3. LOCKE'S "PROOF" O
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30 TELL ME WHY ideas in a human min
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34 TELL ME WHY Hume, who deftly exp
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38 AN IDEA IS BORN Natural Selectio
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42 AN IDEA IS BORN think this canno
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46 AN IDEA IS BORN Did Darwin Expla
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50 AN IDEA IS BORN Natural Selectio
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54 AN IDEA IS BORN Processes as Alg
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58 AN IDEA IS BORN Processes as Alg
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62 UNIVERSAL ACID Early Reactions 6
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66 UNIVERSAL ACID Darwin's Assault
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70 UNIVERSAL ACID the hallmark of l
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74 UNIVERSAL ACID The Tools for R a
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78 UNIVERSAL ACID The Tools for R a
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82 UNIVERSAL ACID Who's Afraid of R
Page 44 and 45: 86 THE TREE OF LIFE How Should We V
Page 46 and 47: 90 THE TREE OF LIFE Color-coding a
Page 48 and 49: 94 THE TREE OF LIFE Colorcoding a S
Page 50 and 51: 98 THE TREE OF LIFE Retrospective C
Page 52 and 53: 102 THE TREE OF LIFE bears only a p
Page 54 and 55: 106 THE POSSIBLE AND THE ACTUAL The
Page 60 and 61: 118 THE POSSIBLE AND THE ACTUAL for
Page 62 and 63: 122 THE POSSIBLE AND THE ACTUAL spa
Page 64 and 65: 126 THREADS OF ACTUALITY IN DESIGN
Page 74 and 75: PART II DARWINIAN THINKING IN BIOLO
Page 76 and 77: 150 PRIMING DARWIN'S PUMP Back Beyo
Page 78 and 79: 154 PRIMING DARWIN'S PUMP Very well
Page 80 and 81: 158 PRIMING DARWIN'S PUMP Molecular
Page 82 and 83: 162 PRIMING DARWIN'S PUMP The Laws
Page 84 and 85: 166 PRIMING DARWIN'S PUMP quite str
Page 92 and 93: 182 PRIMING DARWIN'S PUMP Eternal R
Page 96 and 97: 190 BIOLOGY IS ENGINEERING Darwin I
Page 98 and 99: 194 BIOLOGY IS ENGINEERING Function
Page 100 and 101: 198 BIOLOGY IS ENGINEERING Function
Page 102 and 103: 202 BIOLOGY IS ENGINEERING revoluti
Page 104 and 105: 206 BIOLOGY IS ENGINEERING The Comp
Page 106 and 107: 210 BIOLOGY IS ENGINEERING tigation
Page 108 and 109: 214 BIOLOGY IS ENGINEERING Artifact
Page 110 and 111: 218 BIOLOGY IS ENGINEERING walls in
Page 112 and 113: 222 BIOLOGY IS ENGINEERING Stuart K
Page 114 and 115: 226 BIOLOGY IS ENGINEERING Stuart K
Page 116 and 117: 230 SEARCHING FOR QUALITY The Power
Page 118 and 119: 234 SEARCHING FOR QUALITY phine!) T
Page 120 and 121: 238 SEARCHING FOR QUALITY The Leibn
Page 122 and 123: 242 SEARCHING FOR QUALITY The Leibn
Page 124 and 125: 246 The Leibnizian Paradigm 247 SEA
Page 126 and 127: 250 SEARCHING FOR QUALITY ing trans
Page 128 and 129: 254 SEARCHING FOR QUALITY The logic
Page 130 and 131: 258 SEARCHING FOR QUALITY Playing w
Page 132 and 133: The Boy Who Cried Wolf? 263 CHAPTER
Page 134 and 135: 266 BULLY FOR BRONTOSAURUS The Span
Page 138 and 139: 274 BULLY FOR BRONTOSAORUS The Span
Page 142 and 143: 282 BULLY FOR BRONTOSAURUS Punctuat
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286 BULLY FOR BRONTOSAURUS FIGURE 1
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290 BULLY FOR BRONTOSAURUS but only
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294 BULLY FOR BRONTOSAURUS Punctuat
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298 BULLY FOR BRONTOSAURUS Tinker t
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302 BULLY FOR BRONTOSAURUS Tinker t
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306 BULLY FOR BRONTOSAURUS conclusi
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310 BULLY FOR BRONTOSAURUS later ch
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314 CONTROVERSIES CONTAINED A Clutc
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318 CONTROVERSIES CONTAINED ence of
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322 CONTROVERSIES CONTAINED Weisman
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326 CONTROVERSIES CONTAINED Cui Bon
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330 CONTROVERSIES CONTAINED CuiBono
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CHAPTER TWELVE The Cranes of Cultur
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338 THE CRANES OF CULTURE The Monke
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342 THE CRANES OF CULTURE about how
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346 THE CRANES OF CULTURE Invasion
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350 THE CRANES OF CULTURE ln vasion
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354 THE CRANES OF CULTURE Could The
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358 THE CRANES OF CULTURE Could The
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362 THE CRANES OF CULTURE The Philo
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366 THE CRANES OF CULTURE The Philo
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The Role of Language in Intelligenc
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374 LOSING OUR MINDS TO DARWIN The
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386 LOSING OUR MINDS TO DARWIN Chom
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390 LOSING OUR MINDS TO DARWIN Chom
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394 LOSING OUR MINDS TO DARWIN Nice
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398 LOSING OUR MINDS TO DARWIN Nice
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402 THE EVOLUTION OF MEANINGS The Q
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406 THE EVOLUTION OF MEANINGS count
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410 THE EVOLUTION OF MEANINGS The Q
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414 THE EVOLUTION OF MEANINGS Two B
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418 THE EVOLUTION OF MEANINGS hadn'
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422 THE EVOLUTION OF MEANINGS get a
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426 THE EVOLUTION OF MEANINGS Safe
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430 THE EMPEROR'S NEW MIND, AND OTH
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454 ON THE ORIGIN OF MORALITY E Plu
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458 ON THE ORIGIN OF MORALITY my bo
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462 ON THE ORIGIN OF MORALITY the w
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466 ON THE ORIGIN OF MORALITY tion
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470 ON THE ORIGIN OF MORALITY term
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474 ON THE ORIGIN OF MORALITY Like
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478 ON THE ORIGIN OF MORALITY under
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482 ON THE ORIGIN OF MORALITY ble i
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486 ON THE ORIGIN OF MORALITY MIT:
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490 ON THE ORIGIN OF MORALITY Socio
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Can Ethics Be Naturalized? 495 CHAP
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498 REDESIGNING MORALITY Mill's ide
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^ 502 REDESIGNING MORALITY in court
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506 REDESIGNING MORALITY having mor
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510 REDESIGNING MORALITY Yet we do
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514 THE FUTURE OF AN IDEA In Praise
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518 THE FUTURE OF AN IDEA have all
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Appendix Tell Me Why Traditional Th
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Darwin's Dangerous Idea - Evolution and the Meaning of Life

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