RE: Biological Metaphor

"Is the biological metaphor necessary?=A0 Obviously it isn't, but=20
I can't help but feel that it is valuable."

From what little I know "genetic" or "evolutionary" programs have proven us=
eful in certain situations.

(cite: http://www.cs.pdx.edu/~mm/publications.html)

I think there are other ways to consider the same metaphor. For example, a =
current topic on the web is "long tail" software, i.e. the ability to creat=
e niche applications through some end-user-programming capability where eac=
h application is not significant individually but are more impressive when =
you see all the niches they can fill.

e.g. http://jotspot.com/ and http://smallthought.com/

What if end users had the primitive parts they could usefully combine (appl=
ications and data) and share. One could track the use and flow of these par=
ts and perhaps observe a larger system evolved from parts by the people tha=
t combined them. Perhaps higher level capabilities could be discovered, aut=
omated, and supported more explicitly by observant people or tools.

-Patrick



=20
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergentdesign/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    [email protected]

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
=20