Saturday, October 20, 2007

evidence.

scientists start with a thesis.

a thesis is a set of ideas and theories laid out with the intent to prove.

we are all scientists in that we have our ideas or pre-suppositions about the way the world is and we go out the door each day prepared to prove our point.

science has held out the idea that we evolved from apes.

science has searched high and low for proof.

a hundred years or so the search has gone on.......and so far; nothing.

but science is a dogged discipline and not willing to quit, presses on, in the belief that one day the missing link will appear.

meanwhile in software developement companies something interesting is happening.

a group of people, who just happen to not be scientists, are discovering a remarkable thing.

the evolution of the ability of a device to um, work better and better all the time.

this device, or devices, is known as software........and is being allowed to run more and more of the systems that our lives depend on.

everything from hydro-electric systems to automobiles to entire manufacturing plants to weapon systems to satellites to your toaster to kids toys to cell phones.

and pretty soon, thanks to bluetooth, more and more of this stuff will become interconnected.

this process of "evolution" will not stop and it will become increasingly more complex and unpredictable.

eventually it won`t matter whether you call it "conscious" or not.

and it won`t be asking your opinion.

6 comments:

BBC said...

"a group of people, who just happen to not be scientists, are discovering a remarkable thing."

And just how did you get it in your lame brain that they are not scientists in their own ways?

Just because they don't have diplomas doesn't mean they are not scientists of sorts.

How frigging many times do I have to tell you to wash your hands before playing with your brain?

Drop by with a 12 pack sometime.

Dr.Alistair said...

i meant that they are not part of the cult of research grants that is only given to credentialed phds associated with the right universities.

and for the most part anyone who designs and builds things are engineers, whether credentialed or not.


thanks once again for the offer.

BBC said...

"and it won`t be asking your opinion."

No, I won't. LOL

Dr.Alistair said...

i guess it is all one consciousness.....

i think the time of the flesh is short though..........

Anonymous said...

A thesis is supposed to be a set of ideas and theories laid out with the intent to /disprove/. So a good scientist starts with a thesis, thinks of something that could disprove it, and then goes looking for that...

As for the evolution of software... it may /represent/ a consciousness but I'm not sure it /is/ conscious.

Dr.Alistair said...

yes speedbird......and so the semantic trap a scientist finds one`s self in defines his/her reality.

imagine the implicit doubt in the mind of a person trained to think that way.

and software is an emerging analog of our own consciousness.

p.d.ouspensky, in his psychology of man`s possible evolution, says that we only think we are conscious and merely operate on pre-existing programming.

makes you think you think..........