Since Darwin, we’ve held the view that an entity becomes Z because its historical journey includes encounters with natural forces when, originally, (maybe a million years ago), it was X but then later ‘evolved via DNA / genes into Y and later used a similar mechanism to evolve into Z.
Michael Levin suggests …
Evolution and selection are not the only dynamics.
Competency of existence or ongoing existence =
Selection (Allowing evolution / DNA, survival of the fittest / most adaptive to win.
Learning.
Engineering or design. (Creating new)
Genes turn each other on and off but there is way more than that a) Learning dynamics – pavlovian conditioning b)
Random electrical circuits also contribute.
Molecular networks are already optimised to learn, adapt, etc (We don’t ‘need’ evolution as such – it already happens)
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