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comment by rob05c
rob05c  ·  3755 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Religion's use.

    Evolution isn't certain of anything. It's not like a conscious entity that decides what happens

Are you sure about that? Minsky said

    Speed is what distinguishes intelligence

    No bird discovers how to fly: evolution used a trillion bird-years to 'discover' that–where merely hundreds of person-years sufficed

Is there really anything concrete that distinguishes intelligence from evolution, other than speed? Evolution certainly acts like a languid form of intelligence. Perhaps even consciousness?

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galen  ·  3755 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I think the distinguishing factor there is that evolution works exclusively through random chance and essentially trial-and-error, whereas intelligence generally involves the use of reason to determine what will probably be effective. But you're right, there's certainly a comparison to be made, and one could argue that intelligence just works through theoretical trial and error, making it sort of a small-scale evolution.