05.12.08
Self-organization, description and theory, and…the eonic effect
James comments on Self-organization
Your impatience with ’self-organization’ is understandable. The problem, of course, is that the ID people have also said as much, and are critical of self-organizatin as too mechanistic. Actually, I think the problem is more one of expectations. And that work is not likely to prove the solution to the evolution problem in general. Nonetheless, it points to the next step on the ladder, unfortunately a difficult step: e.g. explaining the origin of life. Clearly a case of ’self-organization’, but how explain self-organization?
However, self-organization as a ‘descriptive fact’ is one thing, ’self-organization’ as a theory another.
Check out the ‘eonic effect’, a clear, definite, and spectacular case of ’self-organization’, speaking descriptively, but I can’t think of any current theory of such footing the bill.
James said,
May 12, 2008 at 7:58 pm
I have no problem with “self-organization” as a descriptive fact. Your effort to keep your model free of theoretical mystifications is commendable. As you have pointed out, the frustration lies with the hype by Kauffman, Robert Shapiro, Goodwin etc. that “self-organization” will be a productive category for theoretical explanation.
Facebook » Self-organization, description and theory, and…the eonic effect said,
May 12, 2008 at 9:31 pm
[...] http://darwiniana.com wrote an interesting post today on Self-organization, description and theory, and…the eonic effectHere’s a quick excerpt James comments on Self-organization Your impatience with ’self-organization’ is understandable. The problem, of course, is that the ID people have also said as much, and are critical of self-organizatin as too mechanistic. Actually, I think the problem is more one of expectations. And that work is not likely to prove the solution to the evolution problem in general. Nonetheless, it points to the next step on the ladder, unfortunately a difficult step: e.g. explaining the origin of life. Clearl [...]