MixedNuts comments on Dominus' Razor - Less Wrong
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Comments (27)
Ice cream and condoms didn't exist in the ancestral environment; using them as criticism of evolution is like using a screwdriver to pound nails and then blaming it for being a poorly designed hammer.
The backward retina may be an interesting case in point here: I've seen an article (years ago, don't remember the link) claiming it makes maintenance easier; an important advantage if so, considering that unlike your cell phone camera, this is a piece of hardware that has to operate without replacement for a timescale on the order of a century. I don't know whether it's a good trade-off on balance, but even if it's not the optimal design, it might still make the retina a relevant example of something that actually makes more sense than it would seem at first glance.
That's exactly why it's not cleverer than us - we live in an environment with ice cream and condoms. Among the !Kung, the saying might make sense (except that an explicit understanding of evolution didn't exist in the ancestral environment, either). We've been handed a better screwdriver than we could make, but so what? We need a better hammer, and we can make one.