Richard Dawkins: Lecture 5. The genesis of purpose (4 of 6)

[Neanderthalcouzin]

This is fantastic, cheers for uploading this.

[dixiebobber]

richard dawkins is one of the best speakers of all time......i love his work

[danglenuts]

7:36-7:41 he admits that God designed computer chips. shame on you, Richard. Shame on you.

[DrMontague]

You dozy Indian twat. He means computers design computer chips.

[danglenuts]

But humans designed the computers, so he either means God or aliens designed the chips.

[DrMontague]

Computer chips are not a life form. e.g. a scientific calculator does not have life of its own, it still need a programmer to punch in numbers .. A hand held calculator can work out complex mathematical problems by punching in a few numbers but you do not consider it to be a life form Computers are merely elecrto-magnetic devices that store information in binary form, .because of this they are able to perform billions of calculations a second. They are simply tools not life.

[Badgerinthenight]

@DrMontague No but they will be soon. Computers are becoming more and more advanced to the point where they can create their own algorithms and variables. I think one of the newer Futurama episodes, the one about evolution, makes a very good point about all this. I am not religious btw! :D

[norcofreerider604]

I like the series, there old but interesting; however, I didn't like it when he said that the duck and hawk are "end products" of an evolutionary arms race. I find this somewhat misleading because they are still evolving, as are we and every other living thing on this planet.

[aeluned]

The hawk and duck *are* end products of an evolutionary branch. As are we. Whatever evolves from us will no longer be considered a homosapien.

[norcofreerider604]

Yah, I know that; however, the way he said it makes it seem like their evolution is now static and they have stopped evolving and changing, but I guess my point above was poorly worded.

[DrMontague]

MMm. Interesting argument. Evolution must have limitations in things like speed, vision,jumping E.g. By artificial selection we can breed race horses. However there must be a speed that cannot be surpassed by natural means, Otherwise one day we would have a horse that could run at the speed of light.

[KingofNH]

My reply to this would be far longer than allowed here, but the gist:

There is only so much you can pack into a creature. If it is all spent on speed, it can't do anything else. The varied approach is what makes a constant, nondirectional evolution. There is an infinite combination of ways to spend survival tool points.

[Dakatt1]

that's one horse I'd bet on

[maestbobo]

You can always have increase, even if there is a finite limit to it. Say that the maximum speed a horse can reach is 30km/h. Each new generation of horses can have the maximum speed of M + (30-M)/2, where M is the speed of the previous generation. Each gen will be faster but still always under 30km/h. It's sorta of a retarded example, but you get the gist of it. Logarithmic growth, in other words.

[Fladnag7560]

ROFL, Mac Classic, FTW

[BayerLexan]

Impressive that he was using the more "evolved" apple computer. I can't think of any flaw in him now...

[jjuran]

The irony here is while using a mouse is very easily learned, and perhaps even 'natural', skilled users are more *efficient* with keyboard-based interfaces.

[teamhex]

Yep, for some reason I never shutdown my computer using the mouse. I always use alt-f4, that and for closing windows. Mostly the simple stuff like that can make you more efficient when using a pc.

[Hollinka]

Oh my, I cannot believe that someone on youtube is trying to explain what a mouse is... AND THAT IT WAS ONLY IN 1991. Oh dear you must think me very old.

[comp7878]

HELP MY HAND IS IN THE COMPUTER! 5:30

[DrMontague]

Pehaps this was the time when his 1st wife left him or he left her, no woman no dress sense! ok I'm only joking I don't want evidence to prove me wrong about dress sense

: )

[BayerLexan]

I found out about Dawkins becuase I'm a fan of Dr. Who. One of the actors Lala Ward I found out was/is? married to him. I have been a long time fan of the Doctor, and I live in Kansas in the US. What a thread that lead to dawkins for me. I sort of heard of RD, before i found about his connection to Dr. Who, becuase I'm strongly against religion and his book the god delusion caught my interest.

[MistarChang]

Great lecture, worst shirt-tie combination in human history :)

[SteveDurnin]

You've never seen the Open University, obviously...