Epistemic Status: This post explores the relationship between biological evolution and the evolution of our machines. We examine parallels between the evolutionary pressures shaping organisms and machines. We are still exploring this analogy and our findings are tentative. We hope to explore these relationships further in future posts. Feedback and criticism are very much appreciated.

Introduction

After all then it comes to this, that the difference between the life of a man and that of a machine is one rather of degree than of kind, though differences in kind are not wanting. An animal has more provision for emergency than a machine. The machine is less versatile; its range of action is narrow; its strength and accuracy in its own sphere are superhuman, but it shows badly in a dilemma; sometime when its normal action is disturbed, it will lose its head, and go from bad to worse like a lunatic in a rain frenzy: but here, again, we are met by the same consideration as before, namely, that the machines are still in their infancy; they are mere skeletons without muscles and flesh.

— “Erewhon” by Samuel Butler, 1872

Machines change over time. They evolve. Our machines of today are advancements and refinements of the machines of yesterday, with each new generation exposed to selective pressures. Some changes promote the proliferation of some machines over other types and are more likely to persist and undergo further refinement and transformation. Innovations in machine capabilities exploit new niches and proliferate, diversify, and rapidly spread throughout their ecosystem. At the same time, just as with biological evolution, previous generations of machines go extinct, while others persist comfortably in their niche, undergoing only minor changes for hundreds or thousands of years. For example, Samuel Butler pointed to the tobacco pipe, and other pre-machine tools such as hand axes and needles lasted for millenia.

The hand axe is the longest-used tool in human history, employed with little modification for over a million years, and sewing needles that resemble those we use today, made from bone, have been dated to over 60 millenia ago.

A 450 million-year-old fossil of a horseshoe crab beside a modern specimen. This basic design has persisted for nearly half a billion years.

Similar processes of change over time occur in biological evolution, in particu...

Posts

Wikitag Contributions

Comments