tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9424895.post3850739406231243897..comments2024-03-03T17:50:06.110+00:00Comments on Inner Diablog: GalápagosInner Diabloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00455371690283484250noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9424895.post-20516518313806499882010-07-29T21:37:49.574+00:002010-07-29T21:37:49.574+00:00Let's stick to the bacteria because they are s...Let's stick to the bacteria because they are simple. As they reproduce their genome mutates. According to Darwin the mutations which prove advantageous will tend to survive longer. Mutation piled upon mutation will produce bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics and thus divide more.<br /><br />You don't need to go around diiging up fossils to watch natural selection working as advertised on all kinds of phenoma such as the flu virus. You can practically see it happening live in a dish. <br /><br />Spencer coined 'survival of the fittest' and Darwin didn't pick it up until the fifth edition of his book.<br /><br />The notion that anything a creature learns in its lifetime can become part of the heredity package - 'the inheritance of acquired characteristics - is a discredited alternative explanation of evolution first put forward by Jean Baptiste-Lamarck, who like Darwin had no idea about genetics. <br /><br />Anyway, the purpose of my original post was not to get into those tired arguments between science and creationism. It was to suggest that the door might still be open for part of the action of evolution to be occurring within the genome itself regardless of external conditions. If at least some of the genes being passed down from generation to generation are thriving thanks to a freeloading effect, then there may be patterns in the process that cannot be explained entirely by Darwin's model.Inner Diabloghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00455371690283484250noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9424895.post-41948476434847612492010-07-29T04:00:55.416+00:002010-07-29T04:00:55.416+00:00Are the bacteria learning to become immune, or are...Are the bacteria learning to become immune, or are some of the bacteria simply stronger than others, i.e., survival of the fittest? <br /><br />If a man learns to take an alternate route to work to avoid traffic congestion, has he evolved? Does learning prove (or cause, promote, aid), Darwinism (or evolution)? <br /><br />I presume the bacteria analogy was not meant to imply the bacteria changes its essence, but in the context of Darwinism and your invocation...well, I guess if we're looking for observable processes, is Galapagos littered with transitional fossils?Markhttp://guateliving.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9424895.post-41956870635741181972010-07-29T01:19:55.423+00:002010-07-29T01:19:55.423+00:00Or put it another way - your way perhaps - when a ...Or put it another way - your way perhaps - when a given population of bacteria 'learn' to become immune to antibiotics, is God just fucking with us, or is there some observable biological process at work there?Inner Diabloghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00455371690283484250noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9424895.post-74720572084401832682010-07-28T23:00:31.834+00:002010-07-28T23:00:31.834+00:00Indeed not. Learning is a part of behaviour not ge...Indeed not. Learning is a part of behaviour not genetics. I speak Spanish but would not expect my offspring to come out of the womb with an 'hola!'<br /><br />Someone might have a genetic predisposition to be exceptional at maths, but that also doesn't mean that those without it can't learn to count pretty well. <br /><br />I may have certain genes in my genome that might make me adapted (or maladapted) to particular environments, and if conditions favoured the likes of me dying before procreation,then those genes would statistically have a better or worse chance of becoming predominant over time in the population to which I belong. <br /><br />In the case of swimming lizards...well, all early reptiles once swam (as did our own fishy ancestors) But if a certain species of lizard evolves to live on land but then faces changed conditions , over time very small physiological changes which favour survival in the wetter environment are going to lead to more lizards which thrive in the wet...up to and including the aforementioned swimming behaviour which would eventually become encoded as instinct.Inner Diabloghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00455371690283484250noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9424895.post-33784555239312596712010-07-28T21:52:06.255+00:002010-07-28T21:52:06.255+00:00So if one lizard learns how to swim, even though n...So if one lizard learns how to swim, even though none before him did, does that mean his offspring (already born, let's say), will instantly also learn how to swim? (By mere observation?).<br /><br />Or will only those who are born subsequently-inheriting his post-experiential genetics-inherit this ability?<br /><br />Or would it be that only those lizards that learn how to swim survive, giving rational non-scientists a sample to learn from which appears to support a certain hypothesis but in reality proves only that within an environment some survive and others do not, for reasons which said scientists may not perceive or understand?Markhttp://guateliving.comnoreply@blogger.com