Deriving Awe
Having become deeply compelled by the ability of evolutionary theory to tell a story that consumes or subsumes all others, I have followed the story of change back beyond the origin of life, beyond the formation of the solar system, back to a point where the first something came into existence. Though it may not do so for everyone, the story even allows me one more step along this rewinding trajectory, a step toward rejecting the need for any intention or plan by upholding the power of random change to produce order. I have found it very useful to tell a story in which the absolute truth is randomness. This is not to ignore the phenomenally intricate, ordered and interdependent systems that organize matter in our universe, but rather to understand creation in terms of an infinite dimension of possibility through which navigation occurs fueled by random change. My story, then, becomes one in which the Beginning is really just the beginning of one path through the infinite dimensions of possibility, or what Daniel Dennett calls design space (Dennett 1995). Order or design does not rely on the Word or intention but is produced as changes accumulate and become directed by one another, restricting and refining a particular branching journey among the possibilities.
Thus, reaching backwards along the story of evolution I grasp randomness and a Wordless beginning. Reaching forward into new designs and increasing complexity I suddenly encounter human agency and imagination and I am catapulted into the possibility of transcending design space.
"If a brain were truly capable of non-algorithmic activity, and if we have such brains, and if our brains are themselves the products of an algorithmic process...an algorithmic process (natural selection in its various levels and incarnations) creates a non-algorithmic subprocess of subroutine, turning the whole process (evolution up to and including...brains) into a non-algorithmic process after all. This would be a cascade of cranes creating, eventually, a real skyhook" (Dennett 1995)!
This argument suggests that natural selection of random change (AKA cranes) has created a skyhook- something that exists independently of and has the power to manipulate evolutionary processes. It defends the refusal to believe that human agency, free will, meaning, responsibility, etc. are all reducible and ultimately adaptive illusions. Yet, however desirous we are of such a defense, the very ability to know and interpret that we seek to uphold as a human transcendence of evolution must also cause us to recognize the flaws in this attempt to secure a degree of evolutionary removal.
Chanady, Amaryll. "Magical Realism in Spanish American Literature." Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Ed.Louis Parkinson Zamora and Wendy B. Faris. Durham, N.C: UP, 1995: 125-144.
If fine-tuning is to provide evidence for the intelligent design of the universe, it seems that arguments based in probabilistic reasoning are not the most tenable due to the many objections raised throughout this essay. While fine-tuning may very well serve as evidence for intelligent design, the proponents of such a view must either form a novel argument that does not rely on probability theory as the current Fine-Tuning Argument has or find a way to resolve the probabilistic paradoxes that the current argument has been plagued with.
Society, however, is a state towards which humans have naturally evolved, and our continued existence without society is inconceivable. Thus, although determinism is argued successfully from a causal point of view, it is clearly flawed in a practical context as it fails these fundamental aspects of human life.
protect Middle Eastern oil supplies from the intruding Soviet power. “The organization also discussed about economic sanctions and trade embargoes against the Soviet Union, called for a boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics, and stepped up its aid to the Afghan insurgents.” (U.S. DOS). Instead, it took ten years of abrasive revolt before Moscow finally departed, at the cost of millions of lives and billions of dollars. The Soviets left a broken country in which the Taliban, an Islamic fanatic group, seized power, later arranging Osama bin Laden with a training base from which to launch terrorist activity worldwide. The Soviet stance on human rights and its invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 created new tensions between the two countries. On the
Kim: This discussion question response is being directed to a “no” respondent simply because there are insufficient students in the course with surnames M-Z. Although Bins and her classmate, Chouraeshkenazi, have both responded with “no” relative to this week’s discussion question asking whether evolution provides an adequate explanation for psychological concepts, she seeks to respectfully talk through some of Chouraeshkenazi’s argument. In this regard, Bins is interested in Chouraeshkenazi’s response to her response.
Our world is filled with complex systems which defy reductionist understanding. Systems ranging from the self-organization of life and emergent intelligence to the chaos of fluid dynamics and dripping faucets. Just as surely as these systems exhibit a synergistic process of generating information they share some analogous processes on their most basic levels.
Devout. Focused. Charismatic. Passionate. Willing to die for the cause. Superb organizational skills. Imaginative planning. Ability to endure hardships. These words are pulled from a psychological profile of a powerful visionary individual of our time, Osama bin Laden (Ross, 2015). Although bin Laden can be considered a visionary leader, he was not an ethical leader. In this paper I will discuss Osama bin Laden’s traits as a visionary leader, such as his Full Range Leadership trait of Idealized Influence and how it was displayed in his effort to gain followers for Al Qaeda. I will then touch on his Team Dynamics pattern of Advancer and how bin Laden, as a visionary leader, capitalized on this pattern while planning the 9/11 attacks. Next, I will discuss Osama bin Laden’s shortfalls and why he was not considered an ethical leader by falling into the ethical trap of ethical relativism and the
To Whom It May Concern, Stephen Gould and Richard Lewontin’s article called The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm: A Critique of the Adaptationist Programme shows the consistent religious aspect in most evolutionary writing. An article must meet these three criteria to be worth of publication. Firstly, it must have a persuasive argument. Secondly, it must have an authoritative voice, as if talking with the read instead of at the reader. Lastly, the article must contain an accurate ideas. This article has a great authoritative voice by talking to the reader instead of at them. Although Gould and Lewontin’s article has several attributes, it has some falsehoods included as well. For instance, one critique of their spandrels
Skillings, Jonathan. Newsmaker: Getting machines to think like us. 3 July 2006. 18 March 2014. .
Once upon a time, there was A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings who lived in a world where the mystical is not outright outrageous. It’s as if there was always a chance of an old angel falling out of the sky. People react as if this is more unusual, rather than improbable. For a children’s story, such as this, makes the strange seem normal. Gabriel García Márquez, famous for his blend of magic and realism, created a children tale to warn the every one of the dangers of being ignorant of everyday life.
... yet present in all things […] something underlying the change and transformation of all beings, the spontaneous process regulating the natural cycle of the universe” (3).
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a master of magical realism, twist our minds eye in the story A VERY OLD MAN WITH ENORMOUS WINGS. Our perspectives are disoriented as we are enchanted with beautiful prose and appaled by people’s actions.
Gabriel García Márquez’s short story “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” possesses literary significance due to its characters, tone, and theme. Aside from the title character, this story has other interesting personalities in its cast. Influenced by the way his grandmother told stories when he was a child, the tone of García Márquez’s story is special and plays a crucial part to the magical realism in the story. Tied into the magical realism, the theme of the tale also makes this a classic, asking whether or not the miraculous has a place in the mundane world. With these three elements—characters, tone, and theme—, García Márquez’s “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” is a story that has literary significance.
In conclusion Gabriel Garcia Marquez was a man shaped by his family, time, and location. Had one of these changed he would not have been the writer of magical realism. Although his grandparents had a tremendous amount of influence on the upbringing of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the cultural aspect of his life had a slightly greater deal to do with how he came about. For example, had he never read Metamorphosis by Kafka, he might have stayed with the law. It is apparent that timing was everything to do with who Gabriel Garcia Marquez is today.
Hegeman, J. (2008). The Thinking Behind Design. Master Thesis submitted to the school of design, Carngie Mellon University. Retrieved from: http://jamin.org/portfolio/thesis-paper/thinking-behind-design.pdf.