SJ>Would you mind if I sent a copy of your comments to Walter to
SJ>give him the right of reply? I have no guarantee he will reply,
SJ>since my past attempts to lure him back to the Reflector have
SJ>failed.
I would like nothing better than to have ReMine actually address
the concerns that were raised by me repeatedly on talk.origins
and cc'ed email.
WE>ReMine did not produce the name of the simulation that he had
>claimed showed the problem, nor any indication of how one
>recognized the problem in a simulation. It seems to me that he
>missed a great opportunity to try out his idea.
SJ>ReMine actually names one in his book, ie. Dawkin's "Methinks it
SJ>is like a Weasel" simulation:
SJ>"Thus, the simulation-with its numerous unrealistic assumptions that
SJ>favor evolution-is less than five times faster than Haldane's estimate
SJ>of 300 generations per substitution. Ironically, this suggests that
SJ>Haldane was too optimistic about the speed of evolution.' (ReMine
SJ>W.J., "The Biotic Message: Evolution Versus Message
SJ>Theory", St. Paul Science: Saint Paul MN, 1993, p236).
I had checked out "The Biotic Message" once before, but I did not
have it in hand during the talk.origins discussion. If the "weasel"
simulation is really the one that Walter meant, then that should have
been dead easy for him to name. I suspect it was the call for a
definite and programmable criterion for detection of a "problem"
due to Haldane's dilemma that caused the silence.
I counted up to eight times that I asked for the name of the
simulation and other associated support, and then presented
it a few more times that I didn't count. The only response
from Walter was "Hold your horses."
BTW, I believe that Kurt VonRoeschlaub has posted a "weasel"
clone before on t.o. That particular simulation can probably
be implemented in less than a couple of hundred lines of
Pasca, c, or c++ code. The loss of Dawkins' particular variant
is not a major impediment.
I've changed locale recently, am catching a cold, and don't have
my archive online at the moment. In addition, the folks that pay
my assistantship would like me to actually do their coding. Please
take delays in my responses as indications of the vagaries of my
life rather than reflection on the questions.