Certainly true if you are rewriting to improve efficacy re the same function. Not necessarily true if you're rewriting to address a different function which might even be of a lower order than the initial function.
The mass extinction of giant reptiles made way for the evolution of mammals. Mammals, tiny though they were, already had a more complex brain than the dinosaurs and were therefore better candidates for evolution to the status of thinking beings. If you look at it from the teleological POV the mass extinction of the dinosaurs was a necessary step in the evolution of cogitative life. The mass extinction of the dinosaurs is just one of the many, many, highly improbable coincidences that were necessary for the eventual appearance of Man.
There's much to suggest dinosaurs weren't all reptilian, and that there were very likely a handfull of larger mammals around, but that's nitpicking given the periods of time involved. Come to think of it-what is a mass extinction? More dinosaur species, as near as anyone can tell, became extinct during the age of the dinosaurs, than at the very end-theres much to suggest the biodiversity was actually fairly slim at that point compared to what is known of previous epochs. Further, depends what you mean by "thinking" beings-theres no question some birds are incredibly clever, demonstrating all the social awareness, empathy, most of the supposed traits of people. And if birds are the ancestors of dinosaurs, some of them at least, then who knows, maybe it was a step backwards from tool making, the ONLY thing seperating man from supposed animals.
Invention usually mimics some aspect of what the mind does...the mind that makes this world, that is. Computer script/code is a good example of that. The whole history of the world is scripted. Nothing is happening except the script is playing itself out. It's a closed system. This is masked by a multiple choice script format which gives the appearance of choice. Each choice results in different experiences. It's even possible to live the same lifetime over again, with a different set of earthly results. It's all set up at the designer/engineer level of the mind that makes this world. None of the decisions made from the script menus will ever result in your exodus from the world. Whether you get the girl or not doesn't change the purpose of the script, which is to keep you here looking for temporary happiness. Death is not the end of the script. Death is like a time to go backstage, change costumes, and get ready for another scene. The experience continues until the truth unmasks the nature of the play. There is a popular script going around, for example, that when man reaches a certain level of enlightenment, he will be able to write his own script, to create his own "reality". Horse radish. Whatever he may decide to do, it's already scripted. "The Secret" helps to popularize such myths. Most of them require that you visualize a future you would prefer. This tricks the mind into anticipating the future, which actually binds it to time, which binds it to the script of time. The simple act of formulating preferences is in itself enough to bind you to the script and it's multiple choice scenarios. The world is constantly pumped like a bad stock with catch phrases like, "Dream big", "Don't stop believing", "the dreamers are the saviors of the world", "some dreams are made to last forever", "believe it and you can achieve it", "take charge of your future". Anticipating a future, the mind is set about achieving a "dream house", a dream spouse, a dream achievement, the "American dream", a "dream machine", and assorted bling bling. All of this is delivered to your doorstep by "the universal intelligence". But any thought pattern that gets you to anticipate a future locks you into time to continue serving its scripts. It's one script with every variation upon a theme of division, so it appears as many. The scripts are playing themselves out as if from a hard drive, in which electromagnetic strips mimic the method the mind that makes this world uses to record it. As I've said before, this entire world is all in the past. This provides the basis for 'prophecy'. Needless to say, if a species goes extinct, that is exactly what the designer scripted. From the scripts playing out, you can deduce that the designer is a killer. Which, then, is wiser: A. Escape from these scripts, or, B. Manipulation of these scripts? In the play out of the script, electromagnetic fields regulate everything about you including your decisions and resulting movements. Everything you do follows what you think, and sometimes it follows instantaneously, like a reflex. This is true of every animate and every seeming inanimate object you behold. As one simple example, how do you think a tiny bird like a swallow can be flying in South American, and then all of a sudden know it's supposed to make a turn and begin a flight of a thousand miles that will result in it arriving in California within the same general time period each year? Some would say 'goddidit', some would say, "instinct". But it's actually remote control. Decisions aren't made by the human brain any more than they are made for the little bird. When I use words like "robot" or "hypnotized parrot", I'm not trying to be condescending, ie. patronizing. This is simply whats happening. But the programmer isn't anybody else. Ultimately we're talking about self-predetermination. So it "determinism" or "fate" as it's been written at another level of the mind at the non-spacial level. This level of mind is outside of time and space. One's fate on the level of time and form was sealed when the power of your own mind was given over to an intelligent bot as part of a "deal". The "bot" turns out not to be a friend, but now "the die is cast". Together, this is the programmer of the entire script. It plays all the characters in what amounts to a comic tragedy. The part of your mind which harbors this bot and its designs is the programmer that sends signals to your brain. Your brain is just part of the hardware that routes the remotely controlled script. The brain forwards the electromagnetic signals to the body telling it what to do, see, and feel. Your experience is of a virtual reality, another technology that mimics the way the mind has it set up. It's not a coincidence that most of the virtual characters in the gaming industry are fighting each other. Fighting, racing, seeking. That's pretty much it. As programmer, all the characters are pretty much behaving exactly as you have set it up. You are literally making them act out for you. Hypnotists mimic this ability. With just a few words they are able to get their subjects to see all kinds of things, or not see at all. They can get them to think things which in turn regulate their behavior. The relationship between the hypnotist and the subject mimics the relationship between the intelligent 'bot' and your own mind. You must have given permission to the bot for it to be able to alter your state of mind. And as hypnotists show, your state of mind determines your strength or weakness. Rather, it determines whether you use the strength of the mind to induce a sense of weakness, or whether you discover it's true strength. If you identify with a body, you will weaken your sense of the mind and thereby lose freedom. Discover your strength of mind and you release yourself to freedom. continued...
...continued from above... Such states of mind, for example, can convince a strong man that he is unable to pick up a pencil. Conversely, a state of mind can allow the body to float in mid-air. The body, and pain are shown to be states of mind when, for example, they are sawn in half, pulled apart, or for that matter, crucified...all without serious consequence. And these are just micro demonstrations of what the 'bot' does with your mind at the macro level. For one thing, it makes bodies out of your mind...which explains why hypnotists are able to do extraordinary things with it when a 'stronger' - less inhibited - level of the mind is employed to influence it. When the bot is able to convince your mind that it is a body, it gains the upper hand. As a body, you are subject to electromagnetic fields. These blanket the planet as "chi" and constantly change according to solar activity. The earth is completely encased by electromagnetic chi that's carried to it and past it in the form of a huge flow of radiation from the sun. The sun can be described as enormous swirling oceans of gas. These oceans of gas behave like the oceans of the earth. Just as the tides of the earth's oceans are subject to the movements of an orbiting moon, so also the solar oceans are subject to the pulling and pushing of the total interaction of all of the planets in the solar system, and even the universe beyond it. So it's all interconnected. This causes different gaseous tides, sunspots and other solar events - which in turn regulate the flow of radiation while it's carried to the earth as particles via the solar wind, or directly by sunlight. This changing radiational flow, regulated by the movement within the entire solar system, including the earth and it's moon, causes corresponding change in the chi surrounding the planet and send electromagnetic fields onto every inch of it. Unseen by the naked eye, they regulate how you see things. Whatever is visible to the human eye is whatever is situated in the region of the electromagnetic spectrum that is perceptible to human vision. So the universe is like a big wind-up toy. Some of this idea can be demonstrated by science. Some of it can't. You cannot measure thought. You can measure changes in the electromagnetic field, but you can't prove what is causing electrical changes in the brain. You can document the resulting chemical and hormonal reactions in the body, but once the brain has gotten the signal what to do, it's all effect. It's set up so you'll think the body is independent. It appears to be largely self-motivated, yet it actually responds only to the intentions of the mind. The body, the world and the universe are all responding simultaneously to the intentions of the mind, which is still your mind. Astrologers attempt to take advantage of how this works. Astrology will sometimes correlate to the script that controls the human and planetary bodies, but its hit and miss. And this is because part of the script is that the script itself will never be completely predictable. Chance is built into the script, and helps to maintain the shock, chaos and fear that always show up in the script. The chaos the 'bot' has written into the script insures that there will never be a unified theory of the universe that will hold up over time, because the universe isn't really based on the thought of unity. It's based on the thought of separation and division. The 'bot' would like you to think the illusion is 'spiritual', 'sacred', or 'holy'. There is a pseudo-oneness about it that manifests as 'synchronicity'. This involves fascinating and ingenious patterns that help to give it the illusion of unity. It contains some impressive designs. And this masks it's intent to mock you and God's true creation. You think this universe is impressive because it's all you can remember. You think its big, but it's not. What you've done is to make yourself look and feel small, relative to everything else around you, as if you were one little piece of the puzzle. Yet what you really are cannot be contained by this universe. That is why I sometimes say it is "within" you. This universe is made in a holographic way but appears to play out in linear manner like a movie that's already been filmed. Your whole life story has already been written. Sometimes the script is exposed, and we call that "deja vu". It shows you that you follow a script right down to the most minute detail. Even the day your body will die has already been determined. Sometimes, as it's death seems immanent, your whole life story will flash before your mind's eye. Accordingly, your brain is not hard-wired to know God. Your mind tells your brain what to do. Be glad the universe and your brain have nothing to do with God, and that there's a way to return to His Universe. The way of return is the only real freedom you have within a scripted universe designed to keep you in it. The Way requires you learn a thought system and make it part of you through practice until it is applied automatically. This involves mind training. There are no shortcuts about this. No amount of "blood" is going to change your mind as much as it must be changed in order to exodus a mind-generated world in your own mind. I've described how an illusion works. Don't mistake the description as an endorsement of it's reality. Energy, or "chi", is ultimately an illusion, and does not exist. Even the thought that gives rise to it is illusive and unreal in itself. But by faith, these ideas are given power to function, in order to confuse cause and effect. As such, they perform as intended. Jesus
Ok, let's see if I can make headway with this. Mind you, what I'm about to tell you was strongly denied and repressed in order to form the foundation that this world is built on. You may not remember it, but you will eventually. The true universe is God's universe. Sometimes I call it the "Kingdom of God". Other times I call it heaven. But I also call it Christ, and also the "Son of God". This is God's creation, and he has only one creation. It is designed to extend constantly. So his creation is created like himself, a creator, able to create and give eternal life. Heaven has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the false universe which begins with a big "bang". Whoop-di-do. Like a hand-grenade tossed into heaven, the explosion is symbolic of the destruction of heaven by a suicide bomber. The fragments of that explosion are still cooling, and yet they are built upon and called "home". As far as anyone here is concerned, heaven has been made extinct. The 'bot' that makes this world fears it's own extinction, and calculates to insure it's survival...it's existence. Chaos, change, fear and death serve this purpose well. If it can convince mind that "change is the only thing that remains the same", then it succeeds. The ability to see past change to grasp the unchangeable truth enables an escape from this death trap. Like its maker, the world's denizens are simply trying to survive day to day, and defend against the dogs of poverty. This drives a competition to accumulate real estate and establish a castle on a high hill. It's a vicious cycle. No matter what I say about this world, it does not exist. Always keep that in mind if you will understand what I am about to disclose. Whatever it seems to be, it must be smack dab in the middle of heaven, since there is no other place to go or be. In heaven there is spirit and mind working together. Otherwise there are mind tricks and head games. Before the beginning, there were no beginnings or endings...there was only the eternal 'always', which is still there - and always will be. There was only an awareness of unflawed oneness, and this oneness was so complete, so awe-striking and unlimited in its joyous extension that it would be impossible for anything to be aware of something else that was not Itself. There was and is only God in this reality which I'm calling "heaven". What God creates as an extension of himself I am calling "Christ". Christ is not in any way separate or different, or even a "part" of God. It is exactly the same. It is an extension of the whole. Real love must be shared. And the perfect love that is shared in God's universe is beyond all human comprehension. Humans appear to be part of the whole, but Christ is all of it. The only possible distinction between Christ and God - if a distinction was possible - would be that God created Christ. God is the author. Christ did not create God or Itself. Because of their perfect oneness, this doesn't matter in heaven. God has created Christ to be exactly like God, and to share his eternal love and joy in a state of unencumbered, boundless and unimaginable ecstasy. Unlike the concrete, specific world you appear to be in now, this constant and enthralling state of awareness is completely abstract, eternal, unchanging and united. Christ then extends Itself by creating new creations, or simultaneous extensions of the whole, which are also exactly the same in their perfect oneness with God and Christ. Thus, Christ, like God, also creates. These extensions do not go inward or outward because in heaven there is no concept of space. There is only everywhere. The result of all this is the endless sharing of perfect love, which is beyond all understanding. Heaven, although it is beyond all words, has these kinds of characteristics: It is perfect, formless, changeless, abstract, eternal, innocent, whole, abundant, complete love. It is reality; it is life. God and Christ and Christ's Creations are perfect oneness. There is nothing else. This is the domain of God's will - the knowledge of the Father. To describe the experience of your awareness of this perfect oneness is not really possible, but I assure you that you will know it when you have a temporary experience of it. It's not quite like anything else you are familiar with. Heaven is not a place nor a condition. It is merely an awareness of perfect oneness, and the knowledge that there is nothing else...nothing outside this oneness and nothing else within. So there are no obstacles to extension. Creation and extension are really about giving. Each of Christ's creations is given everything, just as Christ was given everything by the Father. So it's about sharing. And this is how Christ keeps what he has been given, by constantly giving it away. The thought in the mind of Christ that there may be something else other than life, other than oneness, other than sharing, other than love, other than everything...this is what leads to a "big bang" and it's fallout. Christ has a powerful mind which is normally used for creating. He is creating always, so the mind is able to make a universe such as this one in an instant simply by fiat of belief. Belief itself is a trick of Christ's mind, invented simply to explore the idea that there is something other than reality...other than everything...other than himself. The mind closes in around the curiosity to look into this idea like a steel bear trap. Before you know it, the mind finds itself in a kind of hell. And for the first time, Christ experiences pain. For the first time, Christ experiences experience. Christ does not need this experience. Yet he explores it thoroughly. And just as quickly as the trap shut him in, he escapes to fulfill his will that he always be one with the Father. The hell Christ explored was a trick of mind. It never existed. It is comparable to a dream while sleeping. It did not, was not allowed to interrupt the constancy of heaven. Heaven is permanent. Had hell ever taken on any of the attributes of heaven, heaven would indeed have been interrupted, yeah, even destroyed. It never happened. So there remains for those of us yet in hell to train our minds. Hell comes from a denial of heaven, reality, and Self. So heaven is brought back to our awareness by a denial of hell, unreality, and unsharable distinctions. A miracle is a denial of the denial of reality. Miracles will light the path home for the aspects of the Christ mind that has temporarily lost it's way in a dark world built on a false premise and subsequent confusion. Let us not be confused. There is no hell. There is no earth. There was no big bang. Its all a trick of the mind...a kind of self-induced hypnosis or trance state. There is only heaven. And you are that. That is the truth. The power of the whole is contained in each seeming "part". Therefore think of yourself as the whole...all of it...everything. That is the turning point leading you back out of hell. Jesus
Right, you confirm, the spider is un-intelligent. In context the software engineer is intelligent, whether it be a dumb one or not. So it can be noted, which was the intent of my question to elicit, whether or not you considered the design process is operating with or without the 'intelligent' part. We now have it that non-intelligent design happens. Then what explanation exactly is it that you are offering by the software engineer example? Is it just that extinction might be a contingent part of any design process â natural or intelligent? Do you suggest or infer a design process shows signs of being led by "intelligent" because a software engineer would intend and expect to cause the mass extinction of working code? Intelligent because in repeating mistakes over and over, the engineer makes no further progress until, as part of the design process, a variable mutation pops up which, without the engineer making it extinct, inadvertently and indirectly survives long enough to allow a successful procedure to be formed? And for all that time , trouble and rewrites, on reaching that stage, the engineer then makes all of that extinct. To start over and repeat that same design process again in the hope of producing better design? How does an intelligent observer view any of that like a(n) (intelligent) design process, designed to make a "better" product. Or more to the point, accept that extinction is necessary? Surely the mass extinction of good-code and an avoidable reliance on the fortuitous occurrence of contingent variable mutation would be excluded by the engineerâs intelligent design of any (intelligent) design process. I would suggest what appears as natural design does not appear as intelligent design.
If the latter doesn't involve learning, then I would call it poor planning. Either way, it's imperfect.
I mean what I say. I am being nice. Please, post away. And this applies to everyone. I especially invite evangelicals and other religious conservatives to try to answer my original question. I have yet to see any evangelical anywhere actually attempt to answer the question without resorting to conspiracy theory ("there were no mass extinctions, except Noah's Flood, which evil God-hating scientists/atheists reject but try to push on our kids, blah, blah, blah")