[FRIAM] Exaptations and the "Design" evolution of the Internet (was Re: The epiphenomenality relation)

[Stephen Guerin]

Nick,

You may be interested in this recent short blog on exaptations and the
design of the internet:
 https://subconscious.substack.com/p/exapt-existing-infrastructure

Note the Internet is more about protocol than any particular
hardware/network instantiation and it has evolved on top of other
communication networks designed for other functions.
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On Thu, Nov 25, 2021 at 11:39 PM <thompnickson2 at gmail.com> wrote:

> All, or any,
>
>
>
> I have been wondering all week why none of you have sent me insults about
> the text below.  It appears that ONE of the reasons may be that I never
> sent it to you.  Well, now is your chance.
>
>
>
> From the natural design perspective, design is a property of things, not
> of minds that make things.  The perspective asserts that a thing is
> experienced as designed when it is one of an array of things existing in an
> array of environments, such that there is a systematic relation between
> things and environments.  Against the background  of such systematic
> relations, it becomes possible to say that this particular thing is
> well-designed for this particular environment.  Over the years, we have
> used many different examples to illustrate this principle.  We can say, for
> instance, that a particular building is well designed as a studio because
> there exists an array of buildings, and array of functions they perform,
> and this building fits the pattern of buildings where artists reside and
> work.  Or we can say that this tool is designed for shaving wood because
> there is a tool kit of tools, and array of circumstances in which they are
> put to use, and that there is in general a relation between the form of the
> tool of the kit and the use to which it is put.  Or, we might say that the
> hefty bill of this Evening Grosbeak is designed for cracking seeds, because
> you see at your feeder birds with an array of beak sizes and shapes, an
> array of beak sizes, and there is a relation between the manner in which
> seeds are eaten and beak shapes
>
>
>
> In several publications, we have taken on the project of recasting
> problematic concepts in psychology and biology as instances of natural
> design.   The goal has been, from the start, to sort out the describers of
> natural design from its explainers so as to better understand the structure
> of psychological and biological explanations.
>
>
>
> Today we will take on *epiphenomenality* and its companion, *exaptation*.
> We will argue for a definition of an epiphenomenon as a consequence of a
> structure’s (or behavior’s) design which has played no part the development
> of that structure (or behavior).  Further that such an epiphenomenal
> consequence may be said to  exapted when it the structure shows evidence of
> design for the originally epiphenomenal consequence.  The concept of
> exaptation arose from  a publication by Lewontin and Gould (Stephen Jay
> Gould <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Jay_Gould>; Richard Lewontin
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Lewontin> (1979), "The Spandrels
> of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm: A Critique of the Adaptationist
> Programme", Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. B, 205 (1161): 581–598, Bibcode
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibcode_(identifier)>:1979RSPSB.205..581G
> <https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1979RSPSB.205..581G>, doi
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doi_(identifier)>:10.1098/rspb.1979.0086
> <https://doi.org/10.1098%2Frspb.1979.0086>, PMID
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PMID_(identifier)> 42062
> <https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42062>, S2CID
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S2CID_(identifier)> 2129408
> <https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:2129408>)   The most
> unforgettable example of a biological exaptation is the hypertrophied
> clitoris or pseudo penis of the female spotted hyena.  Hyena groups are
> organized into matriarchal clans, headed by a dominant female Competition
> at the kill is ferocious and the most dominant female secures the most
> resources both for herself and for her offspring. In maintaining her
> dominance, she uses her hypertrophied cliteris as a display organs, leading
> to the obvious conclusion that the organs were adapted for display.   This
> conclusion turned out to be false,  The hypertrophy of the organ is in fact
> the epiphenomal consequence of a design for high levels of aggression in
> clan-leading females.  Such selection led in turn to selection for
> hyperproduction of testosterone-like substances in the blood of young
> females leading to the development of the hypertrophied clitoris.  That the
> organ became effective in display was an exaptation an played no part in
> its original development.
>
>
>
> Yes, that animal actually exists.   They are large, they are ferocious,
> their jaws are incredibly powerful, and they would soon kill you as look at
> you.
>
>
>
> Nick
>
>
>
> Nick Thompson
>
> ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com
>
> https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/
>
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