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Creativity in Nature

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Origin(s) of Design in Nature

Part of the book series: Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology ((COLE,volume 23))

Abstract

To design normally suggests something supernatural. It seems to require powers we reflexively assign only to ourselves and to gods: the powers of intelligence, creativity, and purpose. However, this chapter shows that nature itself exhibits all the measurable attributes of those powers, to a degree a hundred million times greater than the capacity of a human brain or a modern supercomputer.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This is similar to Csikszentmihalyi’s definition of self: “The self represents the hierarchy of goals that we have built up, bit by bit, over the years” (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990; Csíkszentmihályi and Csikszentmihalyi, 1988).

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Correspondence to Steve McGrew .

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© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

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McGrew, S. (2012). Creativity in Nature. In: Swan, L., Gordon, R., Seckbach, J. (eds) Origin(s) of Design in Nature. Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology, vol 23. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4156-0_3

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