If technology is the stand-in for biology in the evolutionary process (once it becomes managed by conscious minds Kelly, 2011), then design is the stand-in for adaptation, and an iterative process of testing is the stand-in for selection.
This has an interesting parallel in the scientific method in that both processes involve creating a mental model of the observed environment, making a prediction based on that model and testing it by placing it in the environment as a means of refining the model.
In this way design can serve as a means of learning and iterating toward more accurate and functional models of reality which then serve to enable better design in a virtuous cycle.
