Evolution and Meaninglessness

Does the theory of evolution leave room for meaning in the universe? Robert Wright’s book Evolution of God was attacked in The New Republic for softening the meaninglessness of evolution. [Late Update: This phrasing may be vague. What I mean is that Coyne says that Wright is making evolution "congenial" to the faithful. Apparently Coyne thinks evolution is not congenial to the faithful. I just wanted to invite our readers to ponder evolution and its significance for our self-image. - Editor]

But Jim Manzi at The Atlantic defends Wright here. He offers a very interesting account of computer algorithms that work like evolution.

Computer scientists were inspired [...] because they observed the same three fundamental algorithmic operators — selection, crossover, and mutation — accomplish a similar task in the natural world. Notice that the method searches a space of possible solutions far more rapidly than random search, but it neither requires nor generates beliefs about the causal relationship between patterns within the genome and fitness beyond the raw observation of the survival or death of individual organisms. This is what makes the approach applicable to such a vast range of phenomena. That such a comparatively simple concept can explain so much about the way nature works is what makes genetic evolution a scientific paradigm of stupendous beauty and power. As Leonardo put it, simplicity is the highest form of sophistication.

Check out Manzi's discussion here.