The outcome of Dawkins' WEASEL program was prespecified (Talk.Origins)
Claim CF011.1:
Dawkins [1996] demonstrated a program that starts with a random string of letters and, via random copying errors, evolves it into the phrase "Methinks it is like a weasel" in just a few generations, demonstrating the power of natural selection unaided by intelligence. But intelligence is involved in predetermining the target sentence.
Source:
- Gitt, Werner, and Carl Wieland, 1998. Weasel words. Creation 20(4):20–21
CreationWiki response:
(Talk Origins quotes in blue)
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1. Dawkins' simulation was plainly stated in his book to demonstrate selection, not evolution. It was intended to show the difference between cumulative selection and single-step selection. Attempts to apply Dawkins' simulation to evolution as a whole are a misreading of his book. |
True, but it is Evolutionists that have applied Dawkins' simulation to Evolution as a whole. The above claim is just a response to these Evolutionists.
It is rather strange that Dawkins has elsewhere insisted strongly that natural selection cannot plan ahead--what is a predetermined target sequence other than a pre-planned goal? Yet Dawkins, in an interview commenting on The Blind Watchmaker,[1] maintains that natural selection cannot think ahead, and must deal with what is able to be selected upon: "...[we can't say] well, if we hold out for another million years, that should set us up splendidly to evolve in another million years' time..."[2]
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2. Other evolution simulations do demonstrate all the salient features of evolution [Lenski et al. 2003]. They do include a fitness function, but simulating fitness is part of simulating evolution. |
This is irrelevant to the claim in question since it deals only with Dawkins' simulation.
See also
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