Comments on: Natural beings evolution versus object evolution

By: Pasta&Vinegar » Blog Archive » G.Basalla: The Evolution of Technology

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 20:30:33 +0000

[...] of joypads. Given our interest in studying a “lineage” of technical artifacts, I was wary of using the “evolution” metaphor because of the underlying idea of progress that I did not want to [...]

By: Ingénieries de la sérendipité. | Owni.fr

Ingénieries de la sérendipité. | Owni.fr — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 10:12:20 +0000

[...] image (découverte fortuitement ici grâce à la fréquentation – cette fois non-fortuite – de ce monsieur là) m’a semblé parfaitement illustrer la manière dont les SIC se doivent d’approcher la [...]

By: Philippe Tarbouriech

Philippe Tarbouriech — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 08:06:28 +0000

indeed the analogy is problematic.
it is interesting how in many respects the tree on the left looks completely artificial. it is in fact so “2D” that it looks more like a “designed object” than the tree on the right that reminds me of how the vas deferens has evolved to be routed around our ureter instead of going straight from the testes to the penis, or how the laryngeal nerve in giraffe

By: Frederic Kaplan

Frederic Kaplan — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 19:41:53 +0000

I like this figure very much. I also found it by chance last year in Jacomy’s book as I was writing about the similarities/differences of the evolution of living forms and the evolution of artefacts for this paper:

Kaplan, F. (2009) Integration, incorporation, interface: L’evolution des systèmes techniques, Cahiers de l’Institut de la Methode, 31, p.8-16
on-line version: http://tinyurl.com/ycwaekl