I haven't seen much discussing on the Avida program here yet. For those that don't know it’s an a-life simulation of evolution that is demonstrating basic truths of evolution do just happen. Including seemingly irreducibly complex systems. These a-life evolutions develop through step-wise processes akin to natural evolution. The program can be downloaded and played with by anyone:
No webpage found at provided URL: http://dllab.caltech.edu/avida/
And it’s starting to get into the popular science press, even took the cover story on Discover magazine this month:
Discover Financial Services
I am curious what everyone thinks of this approach and its applicability. It certainly has some very pertinent things to say about the ID movement. But what about evolution in general?
I recently had an argument with an individual about "bottom-up" and "top-down" processes of evolution. Mainly he was arguing the evolutionary psychology can not succeeded because it is marred by "top-down" models that are doomed to reflect poorly on what’s happening. And that the only way to truly understand evolution is through "bottom-up" models. Avida fits somewhat into this bottom up approach.
Is this more applicable then the top-down theories that have been used, not just by my discipline, but by most of evolutionary biology in general?
For ID and creationist, how does something like this not count towards "direct" observation of evolutionary principles? Is there something special about his program that makes it do what you think is impossible?