Preferential decision

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Link to (natural means of competitive selection)

In the usenet thread at talk.origins on Automated Selection I used natural selection1 in the preferential decision making sense.

There was a man who had to make a choice between cake or banana at a convention. His guests expected him to make a choice, selection or decision between either of these, since he had a preference for cake, he made a preferential or natural selection for it.

It all depends what we mean in the pattern/design, cause/effect , natural/supernatural or preference/non-preference sense. From Charles Hodge Darwin used natural as the semantic opposite of supernatural.

Howard on selection
thread Does random mean non-directed: http://groups.google.com/group/talk.origins/browse_frm/thread/8f032783b61ed263/c9567c76911f0c6e?q=backspace+talk.origins#c9567c76911f0c6e

> lets map : natural<=>preferential,   selection <=> decision.

"Natural", in this case, means "in the absence of human action" or "existing in or formed by nature". As opposed to "artificial" in this case. There is no connection or map at all that relates "natural" and "preferential". Note that this is the very first definition of "natural". http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/natural Sometimes the word "natural" means "having a real or physical existence, as opposed to one that is spiritual, intellectual, fictitious, etc." See definiition 8. In that sense, even selection designed by humans, or "artificial selection" is "natural." The word "selection" in the phrase "natural selection" only implies that a discriminative or a differential *outcome* has occurred because of some property of the natural environment, not that some entity has made a choice by virtue of its decision making ability. It is used in the same sense that one can say that that the pattern of magnetism (you have already described "magnetism" a process which is 'pattern' rather than 'design' in your odd world) is to *selectively* attract certain metals and not other objects. That is, there is a differential mixture of iron and most glass.
 * outcome* when the pattern process of magnetism is applied to a