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> dhw: [i]Autonomy doesn&apos;t mean you can do whatever you like. Even if we have free will, as you believe, we can&apos;t will ourselves into becoming elephants or into dissolving the prison walls. In exactly the same way, the autonomous IM would be capable of adapting and innovating, independently of any preprogramming, but not independently of its own limitations or of the environment (which could include a dabbling God). Your &#147;semi-autonomous&#148; is the real quibble.[/i]-DAVID: [i]Definition of autonomous: "acting independently or having the freedom to do so"[/i] [i]You are quibbling. Of course, there are limits from the environment, etc. but I am considering the control of the direction of evolution.[/i]-Good definition. I am suggesting that in the theistic version, your God could have given organisms the independence and freedom to use the inventive mechanism in whatever ways were suitable for the environment. Hence the vast variety and higgledy-piggledy comings and goings. That is autonomy. But he could dabble if/when he felt like it (i.e. take control), which means removal of autonomy. What is your definition of semi-autonomy?  -dhw: [i]All of us are limited to guesswork. Your acknowledgement that your God might have produced earlier universes and might go on producing universes runs parallel to my suggestion that first-cause non-conscious energy is capable of doing the same thing. With an eternity of universes, which you now accept as theoretically possible, you have an infinite number of material combinations which eventually - during eternity - might produce the one that results in life and evolution. An atheist&apos;s dream.[/i] DAVID: [i]But if God is doing it, under my scenario, one gets humans every time.[/i]-I don&apos;t see why all universes have to be the same. You don&apos;t allow your God much imagination, do you? -xxxxx-I will reply to the article on "unconscious energy" tomorrow, although you have already posted the obvious reply with the Weinberg interview!