[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] RE: Is intelligence and design over-rated?
Isn't that why the 'systems design cycle' is called a cycle? Try it, fix it, try it, fix it. Sounds like evolution to me. Besides, with a name like 'Darwin', wouldn't you know I would monkey around with some theory or another.. :-) Darwin (Dar) Piatt Sr. Business System Liaison First of Omaha Merchant Processing 1-800-228-2443 ext. 1978 (402) 633-1978 Fax (402) 633-1897 dpiatt@f... <mailto:dpiatt@f...> Adjunct Instructor Computer and Office Technology Metropolitan Community College dpiatt@m... <Mailto:dpiatt@m...> -----Original Message----- From: Champion, Mike Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2001 2:12 PM To: xml-dev@l... Subject: Is intelligence and design over-rated? Let's welcome back XML-DEV to the land of the living with some flame bait only tangentially related to XML, but some of you might feel strongly enough about it to say something insightful. http://kerneltrap.org/article.php?sid=398 "Linus Says: Linux Not Designed; It Never Was: . . . I'm deadly serious: we humans have _never_ been able to replicate something more complicated than what we ourselves are, yet natural selection did it without even thinking. Don't underestimate the power of survival of the fittest. And don't EVER make the mistake that you can design something better than what you get from ruthless massively parallel trial-and-error with a feedback cycle. That's giving your intelligence _much_ too much credit." I just saw a similar assertion about the success of XML and the internet in a book ms. I'm reviewing, so I don't think it's totally off-topic here: If good software (and specifications?) evolves rather than being designed, what does that say for how we should go about our lives a) in our day jobs and b) in standards body meetings? I had previously been struck by the notion that there's little wrong with the W3C that lowering the average IQ of the participants by a standard deviation or so wouldn't cure ... Maybe I'm just jealous of people smarter than I am... but I've always been partial to "ruthless massively parallel trial-and-error with a feedback cycle". Thoughts? ----------------------------------------------------------------- The xml-dev list is sponsored by XML.org <http://www.xml.org>, an initiative of OASIS <http://www.oasis-open.org> The list archives are at http://lists.xml.org/archives/xml-dev/ To subscribe or unsubscribe from this list use the subscription manager: <http://lists.xml.org/ob/adm.pl>
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