RE: 'Directed' evolution?

Pim van Meurs (entheta@eskimo.com)
Tue, 22 Sep 1998 23:06:06 -0700

At 11:40 AM 9/22/98 -0500, Ron Chitwood wrote:
>The book 'Not by Chance" by Spetner, I think is must reading. Sometimes
>its above my head as someone unconversant with microbiology but the theme
>is quite clear. Randomness simply cannot explain the information increase
>over the supposed eons of evolution. To quote one passage, pp 131.
>"...Among all the mutations that have been studied, there aren't any known,
>clear, examples of a mutation that has added information."

Glenn: <<And as was shown here, mathematically a few months ago, polyploidy in which
the genetic code doubles in length in a single generation is an addition of
information to the genome.>>

But perhaps not according to Spetner's definition ? I have this feeling that 'information' arguments are being abused here to imply something they cannot. A yet to be described definition of 'information', a yet to be described 'increase in information' and a yet to be described inability of mutations to lead to increase in information.

Perhaps someone could make an argument here with the appropiate definitions ?