He cites the way that flies are drawn to the smell of meat, which seems like intelligent behavior. But then he cites the counterexample of a trap that kills an animal. To a primitive person who didn’t know that the trap had been invented by a person, it might seem that the trap itself possessed intelligence and will. Of course, this isn’t really the case; it’s just a dumb mechanism reflecting the intelligence of him who created it. But, Hooke says, who are we to say that a fly isn’t just a more complicated mechanism that is designed to fly toward the smell of meat? In which case it isn’t being intelligent at all, only reflecting the intelligence of the Creator.I think it has interesting parallels with "intelligent software".
Friday, February 11, 2005
Neal Stephenson on Robert Hooke's Micrographia
When Neal Stephenson was recently interviewed by Reason he said about Robert Hooke's Micrographia:
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