Engineered

So, watching Human has me thinking.. the general prevailing wisdom of religions is that we were engineered by a perfect being. But we’re clearly full of bugs, which people usually call a fatal flaw. If we were engineered, isn’t it more likely we were engineered by a previous version of ourselves?

I’ve talked about the bottom-up rather than top-down model a fair amount in various bits of this blog. I don’t see any advocates for it – people either believe we were created by flipping bits at random and testing the result against the environment, or they believe that we were created by a diety, which for the moment I assume to be a much, much larger and more advanced NNN.

But the bottom-up model makes the most sense to me.

One Response to “Engineered”

  1. Steve Seman Says:

    Isn’t “flipping bits at random and testing the result against the environment” kind of the same thing as “engineered by a previous version of ourselves”?

    Previous versions of ourselves had limited tools and datasets. Being attracted to tall, strong dude that can easily pick fruit and smash scary enemies reinforced those dominant genes in the gene pool. Being attracted to smart. crafty chick that can make possum pie taste like chocolate and cure headaches with tree bark also changed the gene pool (and added to the dataset).

    I am agnostic, though I was raised Eastern Rite Catholic. I don’t believe in any God, higher power or “intelligent” design. But I am also open to the thought that anything is possible. I don’t deny the existence of God, I just don’t believe in such. If a “God” exists, comparing our logic, emotions and so on to such a being is the same as expecting intelligent life from other planets to have the same thoughts and cultures as us. If there is a “God”, how am I supposed to understand such an omnipotent being?

    Thinking about all that I have posted makes me realize I could spend the rest of my life looking for answers and understanding that my 3 dimensional brain and existence could never grasp. Instead of searching, I have decided to enjoy what is…

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