Posted: Nov 15, 2022 5:04 am
romansh wrote:BWE wrote:No idea. But evolution is a category within which biological evolution is a subset so whichever way it goes, seems like it still works. I mean, as far as useless ideas go, at least it isn't dangerous
I would say biological is the principal category within evolution. The question I am trying to get Paul to answer, things that don't replicate (snowflakes) do they evolve.
If so, Paul is using the word evolve in its most trivial sense and not in the sense that Darwin formulated evolution.
Paul for some reason seems reticent to answer the simple question ... do snowflakes replicate?
meh, depending on scale and perspective, the question is kinda meaningless. Snowflakes emerge just like other patterns emerge in complex systems, just that they aren't autopoietic/dissipative structures. But that's also a fairly lensed idea. Gaia works as an entity in its own right and can reproduce. It's all about perspective which boundaries you choose to apply. From there, it's just a matter of figuring out what signals are accepted and processed within the boundary and which are excluded.
ETA: Not that biological evolution isn't a valid category, just that it is very hard to differentiate it from other emergent phenomena. Society, biome, species, etc. In most ways of looking at it, evolution is just complexity and a fitness landscape. Planets evolve, Solar systems, galaxies, etc.