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The Tinkerer's Accomplice: How Design Emerges from Life Itself
Most people, when they contemplate the living world, conclude that it is a designed place. So it is jarring when biologists come along and say this is all wrong. What most people see as design, they say--purposeful, directed, even intelligent--is only an illusion, something cooked up in a mind that is eager to see purpose where none exists. In these days of increasingly assertive challenges to Darwinism, the question becomes is our perception of design simply a mental figment, or is there something deeper at work? Physiologist Scott Turner argues eloquently and convincingly that the apparent design we see in the living world only makes sense when we add to Darwin's towering achievement the dimension that much modern molecular biology has left on the gene-splicing the dynamic interaction between living organisms and their environment. Only when we add environmental physiology to natural selection can we begin to understand the beautiful fit between the form life takes and how life works. In The Tinkerer's Accomplice , Scott Turner takes up the question of design as a very real problem in biology; his solution poses challenges to all sides in this critical debate.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2007
About the author
J. Scott Turner
5 books17 followersAlthough I was born in Massachusetts, I grew up in California and remain a westerner at heart. After a mis-spent adolescence and young adulthood, I decided to go to college, earning a Bachelor's degree from University of California, Santa Cruz. From there, I went on to obtain advanced degrees in Zoology from Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Since then, I have been struggling to get back west, but my career keeps pushing me east. The furthest east it has pushed me has been to southern Africa, where I had a joyous several years as a biologist until I stumbled into fatherhood and family life, which was the best thing that ever happened to me. Since 1990, I have been on the faculty of a small forestry college in upstate New York, and reside in the small town of Tully, in a large renovated farmhouse with my wife Debbie, and for many years, my two children, Jackie and Emma, now launched. We have co-habited our house with several animals (3 three dogs in succession, and 2 cats that liked the cut of our jib and moved in uninvited). I venture regularly to southern Africa (South Africa and Namibia) for my research.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 11, 2013
Dense and fascinating reading, which argues that living organisms are a product not only of their genes (Darwinian machines) but are also of homeostatic systems (Bernard machines--named after Claude Bernard, who first described homeostasis ), such as, for example, the human gut.... Created sterile, it acquires bacteria during passage through the birth canal, and thereafter is literally shaped by diet and energy demand, and by the bacteria within. Turner also examines the skin, the skeleton, the brain, and etc., as homeostatic. All this ultimately argues, Turner says, for an "intentionality" in the design of organisms. Without weighing on whether I think he is right or wrong in this, I certainly can say that he set my mental gears spinning. This is one of the books that has changed the way I look at Darwinism and the natural world.
August 10, 2015
I love this book. The book is extremely interesting, brilliantly written with relevant illustrations. I learned lots of new things and gained a new perspective on the complex relationship between physiology, evolution, design and intent. The author has a sense of humour and assumes that his readers have brains - no baby language.
PS: It is not a religious book or an Intelligent Design book or anything like that. It's science.
PS: It is not a religious book or an Intelligent Design book or anything like that. It's science.
May 4, 2018
A well-written book on Evolution. In the course of 11 chapters, we are exposed to advanced topics dealing with how evolution shapes our existence and we shape its existence.
Topics include Bernard machines and prions. While the book may seem eclectic to some, it reflects clearer thinking on the subject. According to Scott, understanding evolution as a process is more accurate than just molecules and biochemistry. And, indeed that is the case,
While compartmentalizing chemistries and how evolution is shaped in molecular terms may seem accurate -- the real story of evolution far grander. This book is an interesting and effective argument against the cold molecular approach.
Topics include Bernard machines and prions. While the book may seem eclectic to some, it reflects clearer thinking on the subject. According to Scott, understanding evolution as a process is more accurate than just molecules and biochemistry. And, indeed that is the case,
While compartmentalizing chemistries and how evolution is shaped in molecular terms may seem accurate -- the real story of evolution far grander. This book is an interesting and effective argument against the cold molecular approach.
May 2, 2015
Given the title, I'll start out by stating that this decidedly NOT a creationist book. Written by a biologist whose entire field of study is driven by evolution, the book starts with the basic assumption that Darwinan processes underlie much of the progress of life forms on this planet. However, he takes issue with strict genetic evolution, and gives numerous illustrations of physiology that seem to go beyond what could be created by mutate and filter mechanisms.
As examples, he covers musculature, blood, bones, embryonic development, guts, and eyes through the lens of the homeostatic processes behind their development and function. How do these physiological machines get created by a body that has no central controller? How do these systems dynamically adapt to optimize function is the face of changing or unknown environments?
The answers go far beyond raw descriptions of "parts-connected-to-parts" of biology textbooks. The systems he describes require engineering, physics, and the complexity of emergent phenomena to understand. Although he covers WHAT happens in these systems, it's his discussion of WHY those systems look like they do that was my takeaway from this book.
And it's that WHY that is the main point of the book.
I think I parted company with him on his idea of "intentionality" of these physiological systems, the idea that their design goes beyond Darwin because they illustrate goal-seeking and forward-thinking elements to their construction (where strict Darwinian selection explicitly does not look forward). This isn't an intentionality in the creationist sense, but tries to explain how systems that are highly adaptable, often more adaptable than they seemingly need to be for Darwinian fitness, come to be. I say "I think" because I really wrestled with understanding his definition of a non-cognitive "intentionality." The idea that the shaping force to life lies in evolution driving the biochemistry, the physics and the emergent systems make senses to me, given my knowledge of complex systems and engineering. I just didn't buy the idea the idea there needs to be any extra spark to explain them, no matter how complex and adaptable the systems are.
In a couple of places, he asks how intentional beings such as humans could have come to be from an unintentional process like pure Darwinian genetic selection. This may be where he and I diverge, because I don't know that we are intentional beings, if by "intentional" one means "having free will." Yes, we as organisms are incredibly complex, so complex that we are at this point just scientifically starting to grasp how many more layers lie beyond our current explanations. But just because a complex phenomenon is unknown does not mean it is unknowable. Just because our extremely complex behavior looks and feels (internally) like we are intentional beings doesn't mean that this isn't another level of complexity that we don't understand yet.
All that said, this book was scientifically thought-provoking and well-written. If you are curious about understanding the WHY behind certain biological processes and structures, then I can definitely recommend this book. Maybe you'll find that I missed some basic part of his argument of intentionality, and if so, you'll find the book even more rewarding.
As examples, he covers musculature, blood, bones, embryonic development, guts, and eyes through the lens of the homeostatic processes behind their development and function. How do these physiological machines get created by a body that has no central controller? How do these systems dynamically adapt to optimize function is the face of changing or unknown environments?
The answers go far beyond raw descriptions of "parts-connected-to-parts" of biology textbooks. The systems he describes require engineering, physics, and the complexity of emergent phenomena to understand. Although he covers WHAT happens in these systems, it's his discussion of WHY those systems look like they do that was my takeaway from this book.
And it's that WHY that is the main point of the book.
I think I parted company with him on his idea of "intentionality" of these physiological systems, the idea that their design goes beyond Darwin because they illustrate goal-seeking and forward-thinking elements to their construction (where strict Darwinian selection explicitly does not look forward). This isn't an intentionality in the creationist sense, but tries to explain how systems that are highly adaptable, often more adaptable than they seemingly need to be for Darwinian fitness, come to be. I say "I think" because I really wrestled with understanding his definition of a non-cognitive "intentionality." The idea that the shaping force to life lies in evolution driving the biochemistry, the physics and the emergent systems make senses to me, given my knowledge of complex systems and engineering. I just didn't buy the idea the idea there needs to be any extra spark to explain them, no matter how complex and adaptable the systems are.
In a couple of places, he asks how intentional beings such as humans could have come to be from an unintentional process like pure Darwinian genetic selection. This may be where he and I diverge, because I don't know that we are intentional beings, if by "intentional" one means "having free will." Yes, we as organisms are incredibly complex, so complex that we are at this point just scientifically starting to grasp how many more layers lie beyond our current explanations. But just because a complex phenomenon is unknown does not mean it is unknowable. Just because our extremely complex behavior looks and feels (internally) like we are intentional beings doesn't mean that this isn't another level of complexity that we don't understand yet.
All that said, this book was scientifically thought-provoking and well-written. If you are curious about understanding the WHY behind certain biological processes and structures, then I can definitely recommend this book. Maybe you'll find that I missed some basic part of his argument of intentionality, and if so, you'll find the book even more rewarding.
March 29, 2011
Introduced me to a whole new world of homeostatic-based design parameters for living systems. Explains why living systems give the appearance to be designed intelligently. Hint: the reason is that the processes underlying living structures and systems are, in a fundamental way, intentional.
November 5, 2021
I am reconsidering this book and think I actually understand it now or not.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews