Freethought & Rationalism Archive

scigirl · 10-06-2002, 06:42 AM

Quote:

It looks like we have another "scigirl" who's great at stickin' it to the creationists! (jealous, scigirl?)

Wow she's cool. Why isn't she over here? Jealous? Nah, we need more women-sciency types over here to balance out the testosterone (heh heh)

scigirl

Undercurrent · 10-06-2002, 10:27 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by scigirl:
Nah, we need more women-sciency types over here to balance out the testosterone (heh heh)

Yes. Yes we do. Espcially if we can get that "leading expert on nuclear physics" from "The World is Not Enough".

m.

Bubba · 10-06-2002, 01:36 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by scigirl:

Wow she's cool. Why isn't she over here? Jealous? Nah, we need more women-sciency types over here to balance out the testosterone (heh heh)

scigirl

Agreed. Bring some freethinking friends over here if you would, please.

Bubba

RBH · 10-06-2002, 05:12 PM

Jesse wrote

Quote:

I don't think it's necessarily that shocking. The vast vast majority of "all possible fitness landscapes" would have little or no correlation between genetic distance and fitness--changing a single bit of the gene sequence would, on average, have just as large an effect as changing every single one. Natural selection requires relatively smooth fitness gradients in order to have an advantage over random search. To me, the mere fact that we live in a universe with regular laws where similar organisms are more likely to have similar fitness than completely dissimilar ones shows that the NFL theorem has no real relevance to biological evolution.

Given the high dimensionality of real fitness landscapes, given that fitness landscapes are dynamic rather than static, and given that each evolutionary operator (mutation, recombination, selection) induces a separate fitness landscape that is not topographically equivalent to that induced by the other operators, I don't find it amazing at all that an evolutionary algorithm, in nature or in silico can get around OK. And (though this is a topic for a technical thread) biological evolution is probably not best described as an "optimization" process in the same sense that "optimization" is used in the engineering and operations research literature. One of these days when I'm real bored and have lots of leisure (say, in 2021) I'm going to develop those thoughts. NFL, of course, is barren of any awareness of any of this stuff.

RBH

Dark Jedi · 10-06-2002, 06:40 PM

Just messaged her with this:

Quote:

Subject: You are being worshipped from afar...

Your sound drubbing of the 'good' doctor has been noticed by the Internet Infidels, and is the topic of much adulation.
<a href="http://iidb.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic&f=58&t=001470&p=" target="_blank">This thread</a>

Why don't you drop by?

Neruda · 10-06-2002, 07:05 PM

just in case She does drop by, I want to add my own accolades! Deanne, it was thrilling to read your posts. I can feel dembski sweating!

lpetrich · 10-06-2002, 07:07 PM

Reading that ISCID thread, I have to marvel at the IDers.

"Literature bombing"?
"PubMed bombing"?

Almost like closing one's eyes and announcing "I don't see it".

And compared to Deanna Taylor, the IDers do not have any specific details to point to. DT points to the topology of protein-interaction networks, and the IDers don't have anything comparable to point to in response.

RufusAtticus · 10-06-2002, 07:31 PM

One of my fellow grad students read this thread and the one at ISCID and thinks that Dembinski is such an ass. He is also very much a Christian, so the IDers can't claim dirty atheist smear campaigns against them.

S2Focus · 10-08-2002, 04:57 PM

Well, it's looking more and more like Dembski has bailed out of the <a href="http://www.iscid.org/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=6;t=000152" target="_blank">discussion thread that he started over at iscid.org.</a>
No sign of him since Sept 22. (There are still a few ID skeptics picking at the scraps, but other than that, nothing much is happening there.)

I guess it's time to start up the minstrel music (and rip off a few Python lines)...

He buggered off!
So he has. He's scarpered.

Brave Sir William ran away,
Bravely ran away, away.
When danger reared its ugly head,
he bravely turned his tail and fled.
Yes, brave Sir William turned about
And gallantly, he chickened out. Bravely
taking to his feet,
He beat a very brave retreat,
Bravest of the brave, Sir William.

[ October 08, 2002: Message edited by: S2Focus ]

Neruda · 10-08-2002, 05:07 PM

Lol, that's great! I wish we could get a sound clip of deanne saying "he buggered off!"

By the way, can we start referring to Dembski as dumbski?

10-08-2002, 04:57 PM	#49
S2Focus Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: 1162 easy freeway minutes from the new ICR in TX Posts: 896	Well, it's looking more and more like Dembski has bailed out of the <a href="http://www.iscid.org/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=6;t=000152" target="_blank">discussion thread that he started over at iscid.org.</a> No sign of him since Sept 22. (There are still a few ID skeptics picking at the scraps, but other than that, nothing much is happening there.) I guess it's time to start up the minstrel music (and rip off a few Python lines)... He buggered off! So he has. He's scarpered. Brave Sir William ran away, Bravely ran away, away. When danger reared its ugly head, he bravely turned his tail and fled. Yes, brave Sir William turned about And gallantly, he chickened out. Bravely taking to his feet, He beat a very brave retreat, Bravest of the brave, Sir William. [ October 08, 2002: Message edited by: S2Focus ]</p>

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10-06-2002, 07:05 PM	#46
Neruda Junior Member Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Portland, OR, USA Posts: 80	just in case She does drop by, I want to add my own accolades! Deanne, it was thrilling to read your posts. I can feel dembski sweating!

10-06-2002, 07:07 PM	#47
lpetrich Contributor Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Lebanon, OR, USA Posts: 16,829	Reading that ISCID thread, I have to marvel at the IDers. "Literature bombing"? "PubMed bombing"? Almost like closing one's eyes and announcing "I don't see it". And compared to Deanna Taylor, the IDers do not have any specific details to point to. DT points to the topology of protein-interaction networks, and the IDers don't have anything comparable to point to in response.

10-06-2002, 07:31 PM	#48
RufusAtticus Veteran Member Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: NCSU Posts: 5,853	One of my fellow grad students read this thread and the one at ISCID and thinks that Dembinski is such an ass. He is also very much a Christian, so the IDers can't claim dirty atheist smear campaigns against them.

10-08-2002, 05:07 PM	#50
Neruda Junior Member Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Portland, OR, USA Posts: 80	Lol, that's great! I wish we could get a sound clip of deanne saying "he buggered off!" By the way, can we start referring to Dembski as dumbski?

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