Re: I'm surprised...

On Wed, 21 Dec 2005 12:18:50 +0100, Rene Tschaggelar <none@xxxxxxxx>
wrote:

>Mac wrote:
>
>> On Tue, 20 Dec 2005 20:37:03 -0800, John Larkin wrote:
>>
>>
>>>On Tue, 20 Dec 2005 19:03:46 -0700, Jim Thompson
>>><To-Email-Use-The-Envelope-Icon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>>So all we can mention now is the doctrine of Stupid Design. That
>>>>>figures.
>>>>>
>>>>>John
>>>>
>>>>You think that Darwin/evolution is "stupid design" ???
>>>>
>>>> ...Jim Thompson
>>>
>>>
>>>Absolutely. Mutation and natural selection is a shortcut to
>>>extinction; critters who depend on that are of the biological
>>>classification "lunch."
>>>
>>>John
>>
>>
>> Just for the record, Darwin didn't know anything about mutation or even
>> genetics. (Mendel's work was largely ignored until after his death.)
>>
>> Darwin's deal was the evolution of species by natural selection. He didn't
>> have an explanation for the underlying cause of variation, or for the
>> underlying mechanism by which offspring inherit the traits of their
>> parents.
>>
>
>Just for the record, we don't know how mutation works
>genetically from one generation to the next yet. The
>variation in detail is as it is doesn't cause too
>much "junk" as it could if the variation was truely
>random.
>
>
>Rene

Right. DNA has numerous repair mechanisms that reduce the effects of
mutation. So there must be an optimum mutation rate well below the
natural background. I suspect that the optimum rate is actually zero.

Do you improve a computer program by randomly flipping bits in the
executable image?

John

.

Relevant Pages

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