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The Wonder of Evolution — LessWrong

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How does optimization first arise in the universe? If an intelligent agent designed Nature, who designed the intelligent agent? Where is the first design that has no designer? The puzzle is not how the first stage of the bootstrap can be super-clever and super-efficient; the puzzle is how it can happen at all. Evolution resolves the infinite regression, not by being super-clever and super-efficient, but by being stupid and inefficient and working anyway. This is the marvel. For professional reasons, I often have to discuss the slowness, randomness, and blindness of evolution. Afterward someone says: "You just said that evolution can't plan simultaneous changes, and that evolution is very inefficient because mutations are random. Isn't that what the creationists say? That you couldn't assemble a watch by randomly shaking the parts in a box?" But the reply to creationists is not that you can assemble a watch by shaking the parts in a box. The reply is that this is not how evolution works

x The Wonder of Evolution — LessWrong The Simple Math of Evolution Evolution Frontpage 119 The Wonder of Evolution by Eliezer Yudkowsky 2nd Nov 2007 5 min read 85 119 The wonder of evolution is that it works at all. I mean that literally: If you want to marvel at evolution, that's what's marvel-worthy. How does optimization first arise in the universe? If an intelligent agent designed Nature, who designed the intelligent agent? Where is the first design that has no designer? The puzzle is not how the first stage of the bootstrap can be super-clever and super-efficient; the puzzle is how it can

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