Design Is In The Eye of The Beholder

A "design" is an abstract concept. We can speak of the "design" of the human heart without expecting to find a blueprint somewhere. Even in cases where we know there was a human designer, the design of a human creation remains even if no documents or memory of the design exists. We see design where we see purpose.

"Design" and "model" are closely related concepts and both may be seen to live in the same "space".

DNA can be seen to embody the design of a life form, but the physical embodiment of the design in the DNA is not essential. In fact the non-essentiality is a characteristic of models/designs. We could imagine creating a process that would produce all the machinery of the cell by some other means - even such a simple means as switching the chemical structure but not the "meaning" of one of 4 letters of the genetic code.

At the "mind" level of model and design, we know that our minds are somehow implemented in our brains, but we have assumed for millennia that this relationship is non-essential, most recently by imagining that a computer might have a mind. At this level, it is still difficult to imagine that our minds are, in fact, completely abstract and only implemented in our brains.

For the supermind, it appears that the "implementation" is ephemeral, like the structure of a hurricane. Of course, a hurricane is "real" but what makes it a hurricane (its "design") emerges from the physics of heat and water. Similarly, a "supermind" emerges when many human minds share attention and intention to act upon the real world. Take away that attention and the supermind vanishes. A philosopher might easily to say that the supermind doesn't exist at all, but that's like saying only heat and water exist: but not hurricanes.

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The concept of "design" here owes a great deal to Daniel Dennett, especially "From Bacteria to Bach and Back"