[PREV - PRACTICAL_LIMITS]    [TOP]

MECHANIZED_DARWIN

                                             July 16, 2009

  Theodore Sturgeon's
  "Microcosmic God",
  was originally           I quote the wikipedia summary:
  published in the
  April 1941 issue of      "... Kidder has developed a synthetic
  Astounding.              life form, which he calls 'neoterics.'
                           These creatures are very short-lived,
                           which allowed Kidder to 'evolve' them
                           quickly into highly intelligent
                           lifeforms who fear Kidder and worship
                           him like a god. Kidder can control his
                           neoterics' environment, and thus force
                           them into developing technology far
                           beyond that of humans ... "

                                     [ref]


  The first, very early,                             (July 30, 2009)
  experiments with
  evolution of digital        Barricelli is discussed
  pseudo-organisms, was       in George Dyson's           The Dyson book is an
  done by Barricelli in       "Darwin Among the           intellectual history
  the early 1950s.            Machines" (1997), but       of the philosophy,
  First published ~1953.      Dyson missed (or ignored)   science, and
                              the Sturgeon story.         technology of
        He was                                            communication
        largely                                           networks, which plays
        ignored.     (As opposed to Barrivelli's          up the parallels
                     well-known work on artificial        between ecology,
                     stupidity.  Perhaps there's          economy and mind.
                     a lesson there.)
                                                          This was published
    It is possible                                        only a few years
    that Barricelli                                       after Kevin Kelly's
    was familiar with                                     "Out of Control"...
    the Sturgeon
    story-- I don't                                            CONTROL
    know any way to
    estimate how                                          Unlike the Kevin
    likely that is.                                       Kelly book,
                                                          however, George
                                                          Dyson does not
                                                          shy away from the
                                                          notion that a
                                                          national economy
        "Microcosmic God" is an example of                is an example of
        a superb piece of science fiction,                a large emergent
        which is nevertheless terrible                    system.
        fiction.

        Sturgeon himself claimed that he              Bureaucracies can be
        didn't like the story much, in                thought of as artificial
        retrospect it left him cringing               intelligences, though
        at the pulp SF cliches such as                they're built out of
        the mad scientist's beautiful                 intelligent entities:
        daughter.                                     they're dumbed down
                                                      by policy and routine to
                                                      simulate mechanical
             One might pair                           components.
             this Sturgeon
             story with a                             Initiative and
             much later one,                          intuition sacrificed
             "Slow Sculpture",                        for the sake of
             published in                             reliability: predictable
             Galaxy in 1970.                          performance, rather
                                                      than optimum.
                Another Lone Mad
                Scientist, but
                showing a
                different style
                of thinking about     "Slow Sculpture" uses the
                creative work.        cultivation of a bonsai
                                      tree as an example of
                                      collaborative work where
                                      you can't precisely control
                                      the direction.  You try
                                      something, watch the effect
                                      slowly develop; and then try
                                      something else as you and
                                      the tree grow together.



   "Slow Sculpture" a better
   piece of fiction, but much
   weaker as science fiction.
   The best material in the story
   has little to do with the
   grafted-on Weird Science (a
   cure-for-cancer, ignored by
   the puritanical mainstream
   because it involves
   hallucinogenic drugs).



--------
[NEXT - NODAL_SELF]