Re: Article: How good is our genome?
From: Guy Hoelzer (hoelzer_at_unr.edu)
Date: 07/14/04
- Next message: Name And Address Supplied: "Re: Reviews of Unto Others"
- Previous message: Anon.: "Re: Hamilton's Rule: light at the end of a LONG tunnel?"
- Maybe in reply to: ekurtz99_at_WhoKnowsWhere.com: "Re: Article: How good is our genome?"
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ]
Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2004 15:34:49 +0000 (UTC)
in article cc205e$2sg5$1@darwin.ediacara.org, ekurtz99@WhoKnowsWhere.com at
ekurtz99@WhoKnowsWhere.com wrote on 7/1/04 2:36 PM:
> Guy Hoelzer wrote:
>> in article cbumkd$1qlo$1@darwin.ediacara.org, ekurtz99@WhoKnowsWhere.com at
>> ekurtz99@WhoKnowsWhere.com wrote on 6/30/04 8:35 AM:
>>
>>
>>> Robert Karl Stonjek wrote:
>>>
>>>> How good is our genome?
>>>>
>>>> Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences
>>>> fobike://rsl/rtb
>>>> January 29, 2004, vol. 359, no. 1441, pp. 95-98(4)
>>>> l/rtb/2004/00000359/00001441
>>>> Weill J-C.[1]; Radman M.[1]
>>>>
>>>> [1] Faculte de Medecine Necker Enfants-Malades, Université de Paris-V,
>>>> Paris, France
>>>>
>>>> Abstract:
>>>> Our genome has evolved to perpetuate itself through the maintenance of the
>>>> species via an uninterrupted chain of reproductive somas.
>>>
>>> The genome is an entity capable of looking to the future?
>>
>>
>> Interestingly, the answer is yes. That is why natural selection is able to
>> cause adaptive genomic evolution. The mechanisms of genetics result in the
>> encoding of the past into the genome, which effectively allows it to predict
>> the future. If the past, or memories thereof, was too poor at predicting
>> the future, then heritable changes within populations in response to natural
>> selection would not result in adaptive evolution. It would just amplify the
>> noise.
>
> You mean some mutations, some recombinations, some translocations and
> some chromosomal rearrangements are more probable than others as a
> result of a genomic memory of what worked in the past?
That is not what I had in mind, but I suspect that the strongly uneven and
non-random distribution of such mutational processes along the genome's
string of DNA does indeed reflect adaptation in genomic structure. My point
was more general. The process of natural selection can only result in
adaptive evolution if the past is a useful guide to the future.
>>>> Accordingly,
>>>> evolution is not concerned with diseases occurring after the soma's
>>>> reproductive stage.
>>>
>>> There is no such person as "evolution". Attributing agency to a
>>> completely natural process causes no end of confusion, especially among
>>> the scientifically uninformed, eg journalists.
>>
>> I don't disagree with your plea for careful wording, but it does seem a bit
>> like quibbling here. You could, for example, think of evolution as a
>> process, rather than merely a pattern (outcome of processes). Dissipative
>> processes, like convection (and I argue evolution), are generally
>> indistinguishable from their entified dynamical structures (e.g., a
>> convection cell). Such process/structures can have agency, and one might
>> argue that evolution/bioshpere is such a process structure.
>
> Anything that has agency can decide to do or not to do a certain thing.
> That is what agency means. Can "convection" decide whether or not it
> wants to get warmer air into the upper bedrooms of your house?
Your definition of "agency" is somewhat different from mine. I use "agency"
in a way that is consistent with the first two definitions offered by my
Webster's dictionary:
1. action; power
2. means
Cognition and decision making are not necessary aspects of agency. In my
lexicon, an agent is a dynamical entity that is a source of effects on its
environment. I think that a convection cell does indeed have agency in this
sense.
Regards,
Guy
- Next message: Name And Address Supplied: "Re: Reviews of Unto Others"
- Previous message: Anon.: "Re: Hamilton's Rule: light at the end of a LONG tunnel?"
- Maybe in reply to: ekurtz99_at_WhoKnowsWhere.com: "Re: Article: How good is our genome?"
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ]
Relevant Pages
|
