WIT Press


Natural Evolution, Human Creativity And Engineering Design In The Context Of Paradigms Of Modern Physics

Price

Free (open access)

Volume

114

Pages

10

Page Range

301 - 310

Published

2008

Size

269 kb

Paper DOI

10.2495/DN080311

Copyright

WIT Press

Author(s)

A. A. Berezin

Abstract

Natural evolution, human creativity and engineering design in the context of paradigms of modern physics A. A. Berezin Department of Engineering Physics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, L8S 4L7 Abstract It is often said that the prime mechanism of the Darwinian evolution is a combination of random mutations and subsequent survival of the fittest. This article discusses several evolutionary lines, such as Cosmic evolution, Darwinian biological Evolution on our planet, common Engineering Design as it evolves over the millennia of human civilization, some fundamental questions on nature of reality and meaning, and artificial computer-aided creativity. Keywords: cosmic evolution, biological evolution, complexity emergence, ascendance, ergodicity, creativity, engineering design, randomness, quantum physics, digital strings, set theory, chaos theory. 1 Introduction Engineering Design (ED) in a narrow sense is, for the most part, a goal-oriented activity targeted for a particular application or a class of applications. Emphasis on inter-disciplinary connections and \“Renaissance” vision is becoming common trend in engineering education [1,2]. In a broader philosophical context Interdiciplinarity may be seen as just another facet of inner inter-connectivity of the natural world. We notice that several paradigms of modern science, such as Quantum Physics, Thermodynamics and Statistical Physics, Chaos Theory and Theory of Infinite Sets, can provide a connected synergetic framework to encompass key aspects of these evolutionary lines. Here we discuss several, often overlooked, interdisciplinary connections relevant to natural and engineering design. It should be noted that modern Web search engines using key terms and/or names of key authors make traditional reference system on

Keywords

cosmic evolution, biological evolution, complexity emergence, ascendance, ergodicity, creativity, engineering design, randomness, quantum physics, digital strings, set theory, chaos theory.