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engineering, efficiency, objectives and evolution

From one perspective, the vagus nerve is an example of inefficient engineering--from the perspective of a prototype engineer.  But from another perspective, it might be seen as the outcome of brilliantly efficient engineering.  That is, if we see evolution itself as a process designed to produce more and more interesting life forms without external regulation.

Compare the two sorts of engineering perspectives with two different approaches to parenting:   parent #1 slices the pie for her two kids whereas parent #2 makes a rule that one slices the pie and the other follows up by choosing which slice to take.  The second arrangement will end up in very messy cutting by the kids with food and time wasted; whereas with the first arrangement the food is served and consumed with minimum waste: the first arrangement is much more efficient from a certain perspective.  But the first arrangement is much for efficient from the perspective of parental intervention and is much more effective in teaching the virtue of fairness to the children.

The vagus nerve can be seen as one of the messy, inefficient (but effective) results from a kind of engineering that is focused on a certain kind of self-governance in creation.

Let creation become virtuous!

So far, this is an argument as much for deism as for theism, but my objective here is only to undermine the point that Dawkins makes about the vagus nerve in his Greatest Show on Earth.

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