>From: ccogan@telepath.com (Chris Cogan)
>Chris:
>>First, the idea that chance can *never* (as Bertvan puts it) result in an
>>improvement in the genes of an organism is like the idea that one can
>>*never* get the right answer on a multiple-choice test question by randomly
>>selecting an answer (based on rolling a die, for example).
>
>Bertvan:
>I quite agree that one might randomly get the right answer to a
>mulitple-choice test, but I doubt you'd randomly get a correct answer
>consisting of several hundred words. Most biolgical systems are specified
>by thousands of nucleotides.
Susan:
you can get several hundred words one at a time. Maybe even a few at
a time. All bad guesses are immediately eliminated by natural
selection, leaving only good ones. You end up pretty quickly with a
long string of good guesses
>Bertvan
>If I were the designer, I would include intelligence as a basic part of the
>design. That would be maximum flexibility - giving life itself the ability
>to make on the spot choices. Do you believe life is designed to be flexible,
>or did it occur by chance? Flexibility seems pretty wide spread to merely be
>the result of chance.
Susan:
life pretty much goes with the flow. What's wrong with that?
Sometimes the flow slams you into a wall or destroys you, but that
can't be helped no matter how smart you are.
Flexibility is built in. It *must* be in order for species to
survive. That's why few organisms are a perfect fit for their
environment. The fit needs to be sloppy because the temperature might
go up a lot or down a lot. It might get a lot wetter or a lot drier.
If you can only live in a perfect temperature with a perfect amount
of moisture you are toast if something changes even a little. That is
why there is so much variation in a population. That is the
flexibility and the insurance against hard times. Variation insures
that some individuals will survive unless things change *very*
drastically. That's why (fortunately) a few people are immune to AIDS.
Oh, and I just realized that if the cells are intelligent and driving
their own destiny, why is there variation in a population? Why isn't
everyone immune to AIDS? Is the AIDS virus smarter than human DNA?
If you believe unseen forces are guiding the destiny of the universe,
that's fine, but you may want to step out of microbiology.
Susan
-- ----------I am aware that the conclusions arrived at in this work will be denounced by some as highly irreligious; but he who denounces them is bound to shew why it is more irreligious to explain the origin of man as a distinct species by descent from some lower form, through the laws of variation and natural selection, than to explain the birth of the individual through the laws of ordinary reproduction.
---Charles Darwin
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