Re: The HP Way

On Mon, 11 Sep 2006 10:04:26 +0200, David Brown
<david@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Frithiof Andreas Jensen wrote:
"Homer J Simpson" <nobody@xxxxxxxxxxx> skrev i en meddelelse
news:pR%Lg.59$bf5.18@xxxxxxxxxxx
"John Larkin" <jjlarkin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
message news:0p01g253fckek9qkpb9dhkqfunorigqenf@xxxxxxxxxx

Of course they do. And they evolve better and faster than random
mutation and natural selection could support.

On which planet(s)?

Everywhere!

Random mutation and natural selection is not the whole story: Whole genes
are frequently swapped too between cells are tranferred on virii. This
increases the rate of "learning".


Perhaps you (and John) misunderstand what is meant by "random mutation".
A "mutation" means simply that the next generation's DNA is not the
same as its parent's, and "random" means "by chance". There are a
number of mechanisms for producing these random mutations - for asexual
organisms, the most common one is through random errors while copying
the DNA as a cell splits, while for sexual organisms, the most important
one is mixing up the genes from two parents (copy errors occur too, but
play a smaller role). Other mechanisms, such as viral transfers, are
minor effects (except for viruses) - but they too are "random mutations".

How can you know, even using your definition of "mutation", that
mutations are always random? It certainly doesn't make sense that they
should be.

John

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