Marchesk

It's fine to want me to read a paper, but this is a philosophy forum, and you should be able to spell out the argument. I can link to papers and video...

As to the usefulness of distinguishing between natural and artificial, consider SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. If SETI detects a ...

Webs are byproduct of evolution, not the life forms that evolve. But we're playing rather loose with terms in this thread. It's true that webs and dam...

There is no freedom to do what, though? No freedom over what I choose to eat for lunch, or whom I hang out with today, or no freedom to bludgeon someo...

To be clear, do you think there are strict separation between fields of science? Particularly the life and hard sciences, such that what physicists st...

Let's say it's an Earth-like planet, and I was introducing humans to it, but I got to modify the potential human beings as I saw fit before doing so. ...

I've had some time to think this over. What seems clear to me is the following: Dams, nests, webs, cities, and genetic engineering are not evolution i...

Well, to be accurate, evolution has different definitions. In the most broadest sense, it just means change over time, and can apply to anything that ...

Generally speaking, yes it is, but we can't rule out the possibility that aliens can intelligently design life forms, just as we have been artificiall...

You want me to define life for you? Can't you look it up? Is it enough to note that biology isn't geology, even though both are natural sciences? Huma...

I don't think it is, thus the debates over intelligent design. That being said, I don't think there is any evidence for intelligent design on Earth, j...

Philosophical thought experiment. Aliens at some point came down and messed with hominid DNA leading to homo sapiens. Upon discovering this, would bio...

Because biology is the study of organisms, not technology or society.

So what you're saying is that biological evolution is defined as heritable changes over time, full stop?

Say you were granted the power to create your own world of your choosing (just another planet). Would you grant the creatures living there the ability...

I don't think that's accurate. Mechanisms are an important part of science. Darwin needed to give an account for how evolution happened in order for i...

I didn't say we couldn't have free will in other aspects, just not free will to do terrible things like murder. But I don't think that love has much t...

It's not a choice I make. He did, and it's noble and all, but I don't see how it works in the real world. I'm very suspicious of anyone who claims to ...

I didn't come up with that definition of evolution. It's one I've absorbed. If I'm wrong, I'll change my mind on this. But it has to be accepted scien...

Are we just having a philosophical discussion over terms, or are we going by how the biologists use such words?

Just everything I've heard and read about evolution. Biologists get to say what's biological evolution and what's not. I could be wrong or ignorant. M...

Is love a freely willed choice, though? Do you get to choose who you love, who you hate, and who you're indifferent too? I have my doubts. Let's say i...

So cosmic radiation modifying genes is only evolution if it gets passed down, same with anything we do.

But an important part of science is categorization, and an attempt to "carve nature at the joints", or at least make useful distinctions. So sure, tec...

Your position is that any change to the genes of an organism is evolution, full stop, no exceptions.

So the Jurassic Park scenario where frog DNA is used to fill in the gaps in dino DNA found in embalmed insects would be evolution, because those dinos...

But presumably God or a super AI would be able to draw the line such that we meaningfully had free will while not permitting the worst evils? That is ...

Agreed, but it is considered an artificial mechanism. If biological evolution is just biological change over time regardless of what causes it, then o...

To an extent, sure. There is a continuum from natural to artifical, where you have beaver dams on one side and concrete jungles on another, and you ca...

In a sense, twinkies are natural. They're made of matter, not some spiritual substance. But OTOH, they would not exist without sophisticated technolog...

My understanding is that biological evolution is considered a natural, mindless process driven by several mechanisms such as natural selection, in whi...

Right, I didn't think artificial selection was evolution, precisely because dogs would not evolve without human interference.

Because humans will be able to do things that nature cannot without us, such as bringing extinct species back to life, or splicing in genes between va...

In context of the FWD, that would be libertarian free will. Lucifer, Adam & Eve, Ted Bundy, etc could have done otherwise.

That's interesting, but the wiki article says it's not part of standard evolution. How far can you stretch technology to be part of evolution? Would c...

Evolution could be stellar, it could be social, it could be sports, it could be evolution of the smartphone, and it can be biological. What's not usef...

I don't think that's true when it's the result of technological means, but if I'm wrong, then human activity would be considered a mechanism of evolut...

Sure, do biologists consider technology to be a mechanism in human evolution?

Why would it need to be me? I'm guessing 99% of the world would rather genocide never occurred again.

Your belief means nothing.

So technology is considered part of evolution. That's a new one on me. I don't think collapsing such distinctions is useful. Yeah, we're all part of t...

If it stops genocide without impinging on other freedoms, then absolutely.

No it's not. We've created tons of things that would not exist in our absence. Twinkies, agent orange, concrete, plastics, splicing plant genes into a...

Technology isn't considered part of biological evolution. Do you disagree that we intelligently interfere with the natural world?

But for the concept of biological evolution to be meaningful. we need to be able to differentiate it from what humans do, such as artificial selection...

Hear, hear.

But we are only talking about eliminating everyone's freedom to commit certain crimes. Now that can be abused, and accomplishing it might have unwante...

I'm just going to say that it's not good for a serial killer to have the free will to kill people, and I don't think other people believe it is good e...

I've never actually seen it, so can you explain how not being able to commit terrible evils would be a hellish thing for society?

Let's try another analogy, which is actually rather close to God. Some think that we will create a self-improving general purpose AI at some point in ...