There is also the mitochondrial DNA which is probably placed in the most unsafe environment inside the cell.
Top Design Flaws in the Human Body: Our bodies are full of hack solutions
61–70 of 99 posts
Re: Top Design Flaws in the Human Body: Our bodies are full of hack solutions
#62So, this is the so-called "intelligent design"? I think not.
Just to play devil's advocate... It almost certainly is intelligent design, because it's intelligent given certain constraints (the existing gene pool in a given generation, and the fact that something working is better than something theoretically better but doesn't actually exist). God iterates using an Agile process.
Re: Top Design Flaws in the Human Body: Our bodies are full of hack solutions
#63So, this is the so-called "intelligent design"? I think not.
I'm glad you bring that up, because these are the kinds of things you should cite to refute someone claiming that biological life bears the signs of an intelligent designer, supernatural or otherwise. What distinguishes intelligent from naive optimization is the ability to refactor instead of just making local improvements. Unfortunately, there seems to be a trend toward refuting IDers by claiming that the very prosp…
You don't refute ID by showing some sub-optimal function in an animal body plan, firstly because ID doesn't claim everything is optimal. ID implies intentionality, but does not and can not explicit intentions. Anyone can make an object that by all means can not be the product of a natural phenomena, and still someone else being able to tell it's design, could not really tell the purpose of it. And, of course, if function is obvious, there's also a better solution.
Re: Top Design Flaws in the Human Body: Our bodies are full of hack solutions
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm glad you bring that up, because these are the kinds of things you should cite to refute someone claiming that biological life bears the signs of an intelligent designer, supernatural or otherwise. What distinguishes intelligent from naive optimization is the ability to refactor instead of just making local improvements. Unfortunately, there seems to be a trend toward refuting IDers by claiming that the very prosp…
The "unscientific" argument is used because the "we are horribly designed" argument has been done over and over again and ID proponents just dodge it with nonsense about how it's all due to The Fall of Man or whatever. It's not like they don't know about these problems, or nobody ever told them. They just don't think it disproves their ideas. They're offering an alternative explanation that matches the data, but prov…
Re: Top Design Flaws in the Human Body: Our bodies are full of hack solutions
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just to play devil's advocate... It almost certainly is intelligent design, because it's intelligent given certain constraints (the existing gene pool in a given generation, and the fact that something working is better than something theoretically better but doesn't actually exist). God iterates using an Agile process.
All evidence suggests God is an adherent of the Worse is Better design philosophy.
Re: Top Design Flaws in the Human Body: Our bodies are full of hack solutions
#66So, this is the so-called "intelligent design"? I think not.
What can we say about a designer from just looking at their design? Not much, if we don't understand what their design is for. If we're guessing at intent or guessing at design constraints, there's very little useful we can say, pro or con.
[0] remember Descent? You can still play: http://descentchampions.org/new_player.php
Re: Top Design Flaws in the Human Body: Our bodies are full of hack solutions
#67What do these 'hacks' indicate about the Intelligent Designer(s) in charge of human creation? That is, can we, as believers in Intelligent Design, discern anything about the Deity(ies) who did the design? The obvious question is: "how many deities did the design? One or more?" After that, you'd move on to gender, and other indicators. Ultimately, one would hope to be able to have Scientific Proof of the truth of one…
Re: Top Design Flaws in the Human Body: Our bodies are full of hack solutions
#68Mother Nature is not, and has never been an engineer. Evolution is trial and error. DNA is spaghetti code of the highest order.
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2010/05/03/linux-vers...
Re: Top Design Flaws in the Human Body: Our bodies are full of hack solutions
#69So, this is the so-called "intelligent design"? I think not.
Re: Top Design Flaws in the Human Body: Our bodies are full of hack solutions
#70My personal favorite poorly designed part of the body is the sinus cavity. When we used to walk on four limbs, our heads would naturally incline to an angle that allows full drainage of the sinus cavity. Now that we walk upright, there's a dead spot in the back of the cavity where mucus and bacteria can pool. This is why if you're experiencing sinus pressure but you haven't reached the stage where nothing in your hea…