Re: failure

John Larkin wrote: 
On 29 Sep 2005 11:22:40 +0200, David Brown
<david@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:



Evolution is, for the most part, a slow process - and changing something as fundamental as the DNA would be even slower. It is unlikely that a minor change will lead to major improvement, so there is little chance of serious changes occurring. 


That's the heart of my conjecture: why should DNA wait for slow random
mutations to alter an organism (its host) when the host is threatened
with extinction? Any creature that had superior adaptive mechanisms
would win, so evolution at some point must look on itself, the very
mechanisms of evolution, as something to be worked on.

So it becomes a software issue, high-level self-modifying algorithms,
not just cosmic rays and wet stuff.

There's nothing mystical here: DNA need not be conscious to be clever.

John


I have several points here. First off, fast evolution is not necessarily a good thing - it can lead to over-specialisation, in which a species is ideally suited for its current environment, but is not general enough to deal with changes as an individual. This has lead to the demise of many species, even with seemingly minor environmental changes.

Secondly, RNA/DNA is a very complex and subtle system. It took a long time before it developed in the early days of Earth's history, and was the rest of a lot of lucky combinations (with a big enough chemistry set, and a long enough time, even events with very low probabilities can turn up eventually). It is reasonable to suppose that some hypothetical new improved method of transmitting inherited genetic material is likely to be more complex. By the time DNA-based bacteria had spread throughout the world, the chances of other mechanisms having the time and space to developer dropped dramatically (it may well be that there were other mechanisms at one time - but DNA-based bacteria came along and ate them before they really got going). Small changes in the DNA mechanism have occurred, and will continue to occur, but don't expect anything dramatic.

As an analogy, you have used the Game of Life regularly. While the analogy is not that great (you can design self-replicating "lifeforms" in the Game of Life, but the emphasis is on the "you" - they don't evolve by themselves), your ideas about DNA changing itself are analogous to a Game of Life "organism" changing the rules of the Game of Life - a sort of "meta evolution". That doesn't mean it is absolutely impossible, just incredibly unlikely.
.

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