> I can make the claim that if I start out with the specific case of 10
> million animals all with the same DNA, the 2nd Law, the law of increasing
> entropy will drive the animals to the situation that they all have different
> DNA sequences. This is a specific prediction that applies to all animals.
The interesting part of evolutionary biology is the phenotype,
about which you have nothing to say, except presumably that there
is the potential for phenotypic differences due to altered DNA
sequences. There is also the potential for natural selection to
preserve a phenotype for a long time, in the face of genetic
drift. So where is the significance of the 2d law for evolutionary
biology, other than explaining the basic engine that generates
an unpredictable range of variations, variations that may or may
not be favored by natural selection?
> [long mathematical argument]
> Thus I would contend that evolution is driven by the 2nd law.
Fine, but what else is there to say about the 2d law? Why not just
explain the situation in familiar Darwinian terms of random variation?
How would the Darwinian model be different if only Darwin understood
that
1 x 10^-2,107,209,969!- 1 x 10^2,107,209,962! = Omega D?
> >Biology is subject to the laws of physics, but the 2d law doesn't have
> >interesting implications for any specific problems in evolutionary
> >biology.
> Ah but it does. Have you ever used that screen saver with worms crawling
> all over your screen? They move randomly but they start out at the same
> spot on the screen. The fact that they end up at all locations is an effect
> of the 2nd law. A DNA genome is nothing more than a billion dimensional
> space and the 10 million animals are similar to putting 10 million worms at
> the same spot in that multidimensional space. When you start 10 million
> animals all at the same point in this billion dimensional space and allow
> random mutations, the animal genomes over time will diverge from the
> starting point. The path of the genomes over time is exactly like the worms
> on your screen, only in higher dimensional euclidean spaces.
Okay, except you have no grounds for saying anything intreresting about
any
particular genome or group of genomes, about their evolutionary past or
future, about constraints on their evolution, or about their phenotypes.
> >So everything is going to blow up or run down or something in the end--
> >what does that tell me about evolution?
>
> That is NOT the meaning of the 2nd law!!!!! The 2nd law says that things go
> from the improbable to the probable. It is more probable for the molecules
> in my office to spread out throughout the volume than it is for them to be
> concentrated in one corner. This is different than saying that the 2nd law
> says things run down.
You can make predictions about the probable behavior of gas molecules,
but to make predictions in evolutionary biology you need to know more
than the 2d law. If I asked something about an email program's behavior,
would your explanation cite Ohm's law? There's a connection, but it's so
many levels away that it can be reasonably deemed irrelevant to the
discussion.
I really have no clue as to what your point is. I know some folks
simply claim that the 2d law proves that evolution could not have
occurred. I presume that is not what you're up to.
-- Cliff LundbergSan Franciscocliff@noevalley.com