Sunday, February 20, 2011

Is there anyplace quite like Hyde Park on a Sunday?




My friend Dylan was in Hyde Park, London on a Sunday. He had wandered over to the speaker’s corner, an infamous place where anybody with a soap box can stand up and argue for or against whatever it is they feel like arguing.
Dylan has a particular interest in debates and couldn’t resist the urge of wandering over to the man holding the picture of an Ape and a Ferrari. The man could not believe we were related to an Ape. A human is complex (“like a Ferrari”, he said. ) and a Ferrari has a designer and was created, therefore a human has a designer and was created. But Dylan of course was not sold.
“How was the Ferrari designed?” he asked.
“Well by an engineer,” the man replied. Unknowingly he had stepped into Dylan’s trap.
“One engineer all my himself?” Dylan asked.
“No probably several.” the man replied.
“And they just one day drew a Ferrari on paper, built it the next, and it ran smoothly the next day, with fuel, fuel stations and roads conveniently located for it to go anywhere.”
“Well no,” the man replied. “Some of those things were there before and I’m sure they used trial and error in their designs.”
“And the designers of the Ferrari invented the combustion engine, which worked smoothly right away, and in all environments?" Dylan asked.
“No they used existing designs for some of the things.”
“Ah so there was public knowledge already available of them, and they used this.”
“Of course,” the man replied.
“So when they finally got one that worked and sold it to customers, they never needed any repair shops, to listen to customer complaints, or to go back to the shop and redesign.”
“No they’re always coming out with new models.” The man replied.
“So the original designer I’m sure does all the tinkering, and comes up with all these new ideas. I’m sure Ferrari would never take the suggestions of their customers and include it in future designs for testing.”
“Oh I’m sure they would,” replied the man.
“Every suggestion?” Dylan asked.
“No not everyone”
“Would it be fair to say that they take the ones that the majority of their customers agree with, test them, and keep the ones that allow them to survive financially.”
“…you could say that.”
Looking down at his watch he noticed he was late for meeting a friend. “Thanks for your time but I must be going,” Dylan replied. He decided he didn’t feel like debating evolution, and liked talking about Ferrari’s much better.







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