As my friend and co-worker drove us from his facility to the restaurant he said to me "It was lucky that I had the 10 x 69 I-beams in my yard so I could build the test frame for you quickly." What he was referring to was the test frame we will use to load test a winch, winch support, and sheave support system that I had designed-before sending it to the rig. I had shown him the drawings while I was at his facility, and he had it built within about 8 hours. I had designed the test frame, the winch support and sheave support systems. My response to him was "Luck?, it was not by luck that you had the beams. You see, I knew you had to buy an I-beam about 40 feet long to make the sheave support. Since the sheave support only used a few feet of the beam, I designed the test frame to use the remainder of the beam. It wasn't luck, it was by design." The fact is, I used many common parts, plates, I-beams, and tube, to design all these parts so they shared common materials.
So, I pose a question to the reader. If you observe common features among various different machines, or various different life forms (very sophisticated machines, to say the least), what conclusion would you draw based on all your knowledge gathered from all your observations over all your lifetime? Would you assume it was due to luck, common descent, or intelligent design?
The ugly photograph is a shot of the rack drive and trolley assembly for one of the cranes I designed. These are being used on a oil drilling rig off the coast of Thailand.
1 comment:
When talking of differences among various life forms, the features which make one species identifiable from another - as we look at a snapshot of the individual in a stationary place in time - are the product of an increase of, or dominance of, those features that were successful for survival of the species and thus were reproduced in subsequent generations.
Not 'Luck', although there may be some lucky individuals who accidentally get to breed here and there, but certainly more due to survival of the fittest individuals. 'Intelligent Design'? It all depends on how you define 'intelligent' and 'design'. A smart system? Meaning that it works well? I'd certainly say so. 'Common Descent'? It certainly could be that all organisms evolved from other forms. We will never know the true answer because we cannot view that history - we are just a blip on the time scale.
Am I wasting my time commenting on your blog? It seems you have already made your mind up and have your beliefs - not open for discussion? Since you didn't post my anonymous comment last time....
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