Sie sind auf Seite 1von 3

The Blind Watchmaker

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design is a 1986 book by Richard Dawkins in which he presents an explanation of, and argument for, the theory of evolution by means of natural selection. He also presents arguments to refute certain criticisms made on his previous book, The Selfish Gene. (Both books espouse the gene-centric view of evolution.) An unabridged audiobook edition was released by Audible Inc in 2011, narrated by Richard Dawkins and Lalla Ward.

The Blind Watchmaker

Overview
In his choice of the title for this book, Dawkins refers to the watchmaker analogy made famous by William Paley in his book Natural Theology. Paley, arguing more than fifty years before Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, held that the complexity of living organisms was evidence of the existence of a divine creator by drawing a parallel with the way in which the existence of a watch compels belief in an intelligent watchmaker. Dawkins, in contrasting the differences between human design and its potential for planning with the workings of natural selection, therefore dubbed evolutionary processes as analogous to a blind watchmaker. In order to dispel the idea that complexity cannot arise without the intervention of a "creator", Dawkins uses the example of the eye. Beginning with a simple organism, capable only of distinguishing between light and dark, in only the crudest fashion, he takes the reader through a series of plausible, minor modifications, which build in sophistication until we arrive at the elegant and complex mammalian eye. In making this journey, he points to several creatures whose various seeing apparatus are, whilst still useful, living examples of intermediate levels of complexity.

Cover illustration by the zoologist Desmond Morris Author(s) Subject(s) Publisher Richard Dawkins Evolutionary biology Norton & Company, Inc

Publication date 1986 ISBN OCLC Number 0-393-31570-3 35648431 (http://worldcat.org /oclc/35648431) 576.8/2 21

Dewey Decimal

LC Classification QH366.2 .D37 1996

The Extended Phenotype In developing his argument that natural selection can explain Preceded by the complex adaptations of organisms, Dawkins' first concern River Out of Eden Followed by is to illustrate the difference between the potential for the development of complexity as a result of pure randomness, as opposed to that of randomness coupled with cumulative selection. He demonstrates this by the example of the weasel program. Dawkins then describes his experiences with a more sophisticated computer model of artificial selection implemented in a program also called The Blind Watchmaker , which was sold separately as a teaching aid (open source implementations are currently available[1], as are more advanced versions of the idea[2]). The program displayed a two dimensional shape (a biomorph) made up of straight black lines, the length, position, and angle of which were defined by a simple set of rules and instructions (analogous to a genome). Adding new lines, (or removing them) based on these rules, offered a discreet set of possible new shapes (mutations), which were displayed on screen so that the user could choose between them. The chosen mutation would then be the basis for another generation of biomorph mutants to be chosen from, and so on. Thus the user, through selection, could steer the evolution of biomorphs. This process often produced images

which were reminiscent of real organisms for instance beetles, bats, or trees. Dawkins speculated that the unnatural selection role played by the user in this program could be replaced by a more natural agent if, for example, colourful biomorphs could be selected by butterflies or other insects, via a touch sensitive display set up in a garden. In an appendix to a later edition of the book (1996), Dawkins explains how his experiences with computer models led him to a greater appreciation of the role of embryological constraints on natural selection. In particular, he recognized that certain patterns of embryological development could lead to the success of a related group of species in filling varied ecological niches, though he continued to maintain that this should not be confused with the ideas associated with group selection. He dubbed this insight the evolution of evolvability. After arguing that evolution is capable of explaining the origin of complexity, near the end of the book Dawkins uses this to argue against the existence of God: "a deity capable of engineering all the organized complexity in the world, either instantaneously or by guiding evolution ... must already have been vastly complex in the first place ..." He calls this "postulating organized complexity without offering an explanation."
"Biomorph" that randomly evolves following changes of several numeric "genes", determining its shape. The gene values are given as bars on the top

In its preface, Dawkins states that he wrote the book "to persuade the reader, not just that the Darwinian world-view happens to be true, but that it is the only known theory that could, in principle, solve the mystery of our existence."

Notes
1. ^ Biomorphs applet at Ultrastudio.org (http://ultrastudio.org/en/Biomorphs) 2. ^ EndlessForms.com (http://EndlessForms.com)

References
Dawkins, Richard (1996) [1986]. The Blind Watchmaker . New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. ISBN 0-393-31570-3. Maynard Smith, John (1986). "Evolution for those that have ears." (http://books.google.com /books?id=geKky6OQj0UC&pg=RA1-PA61) New Scientist 112 (Nov. 20): 61.

External links
EndlessForms.com (http://EndlessForms.com) allows you to evolve objects in your browser and 3D print them. It is similar to Biomorphs, except the process by which the objects are "grown" is more closely based on actual developmental biology, which explains why the shapes look so natural. We Are All Contraptions (http://www.nytimes.com/1986/12/14/books/we-are-all-contraptions.html) review by Michael Ghiselin Blind Watchmaker Applet (the "Blind Watchmaker" biomorph program written in Java) (http://www.phy.syr.edu/courses/mirror/biomorph/) Mutatator (executable program) (http://cleverence.ru/mutatator/gallery.htm) Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Blind_Watchmaker&oldid=469619205" Categories: 1986 books Books about evolution Books by Richard Dawkins Criticism of creationism

Popular science books This page was last modified on 5 January 2012 at 00:22. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of use for details. Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen