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During Thursdays discussion, what peaked my interest the most was the idea of evolution as an algorithm.  As we described in class, an algorithm is a pattered series of steps with guaranteed, repeatable results.  The process as a whole is invariant and somewhat mindless, as a fellow student described in class (I cannot remember who).  The parallel that I couldn’t quite grasp in class was how evolution and an algorithmic process were related.  In previous classes, Professor Grobsetin mentioned how evolution was non continuous and was a result of a series of random events.  If this is true, would we have to redefine the algorithm that Dennett states regulates evolution? I agree that it is a combination of algorithms that form one complex explanation of evolution.  As Darwin discovered, many of the algorithms that he observed during his research formed a relationship with one another which shaped his conclusions of natural selection and evolution.  However, these processes could be interrupted by many factors, for example by a natural disaster (the meteor that caused extinction of dinosaurs).  It is from these interruptions that evolution is observed in its truest form.  It is at these times that the algorithms are made and combined to recreate life through evolution.  

Another aspect of the algorithmic process that we discussed in class was that there is a possibility that algorithms prevent free will.  Since the process is so unyielding, there is no room for individuality and we cannot explain the variation that is seen throughout all organisms on the Earth.