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After Professor Grobstein’s section last week, I find myself contemplating the idea that evolution creates its own design space rather than working within preordained constrictions.  This concept is something I have never considered before, and I have a little difficulty in grasping the complexity of its implications.  The idea that evolution creates design space, just like idea that evolution creates meaning through brain development, answers so many philosophical questions.  It eliminates the need for a designer or creator, as the process itself continually expands the range of possible outcomes.  I like Professor Grobstein’s use of the pick-up-sticks metaphor to explain this process, as all further developments (pick-up-sticks) are affected by previous and future developments, creating their own design parameters via the shape and stability of the pick-up-stick pile.  The concept of creating design space is so difficult for humans to fully imagine because we perceive ourselves as suspended in the vast and seemingly never-ending space of the universe.   It is interesting to think outside these parameters and imagine evolution as creating its own design space, forming new possibilities and increasing potential simply as the result of the process.

Elise