If you or anybody else is interested here is the URL:
http://www.npr.org/ramfiles/971010.totn.01.ram
Glenn Morton wrote:
>
> Hi Eduardo,
>
> At 09:34 AM 11/3/97 -0600, Eduardo G. Moros wrote:
> >Hi Glenn,
> >
> >I'm not sure that it can be termed "survival of the fittest". In the same
> >plant, for example, we see each branch/leaf seeking sunlite. We can say that
> >a given plant is competing with other plants for sunlite, but, can we say a
> >plant competes with itself?. What it looks like competition to us may just be
> >a natural "mandatory" response (phototropism +). What I mean is that the
> >plant is not really competing but just following a law. The same goes for the
> >roots (geotropism -). BTW, nobody knows yet why these things happen in terms
> >of basic mechanism. I think our interpretation may be a case of Western
> >Anglo-Saxon competative philosophy imposed on nature. Another point. The
> >exact dimensions of our bodies are not coded in the DNA, otherwise we would
> >die before loosing or gaining weight. But all the necessary machinery to
> >properly response to the environment is in us. An adult tree, every spring,
> >produces all its leaves, but the number of leaves, their locations, and the
> >individual designs are never the same, yet the general shape of the leaves is
> >remarkably similar from leaf to leaf and from year to year. Just thinking.
> >What do you think?
>
> Deacon calls it a competitive selection and an evolutionary logic He is the
> expert in brain construction, not me. I wouldn't want to go against his
> observation until I know a whole lot more about the field.
>
> glenn
>
> Foundation, Fall and Flood
> http://www.isource.net/~grmorton/dmd.htm