Evolution (Introduction)

by George Jelliss , Crewe, Monday, April 20, 2009, 08:56 (5492 days ago) @ dhw

George: The code at that stage [the first simple forms of life] enables replication, it does not enable adaptation, that follows by the process of natural selection.
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> George: The first replicating molecules would only produce very similar replicating molecules. Complexity appears gradually over time by natural selection.
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dhw: "But natural selection is not creative. It doesn't "enable" adaptation or cause complexity. Natural selection is the process by which existing variations survive or disappear because they are or are not advantageous." - OK. Perhaps instead of "the process of natural selection" I should have said "the process of chance variation acted on by natural selection". - 
dhw: "The problem is not natural selection but the origin of the capability for variation." - I don't understand your problem here. Variation is just a different atom or molecule being in a different place and producing different results. It doesn't need any "origin". It's bound to happen comewhatmay. - dhw: "... if there is an unbroken line from blobs to us, it can only be because those blobs contained the potential capability or "code" for such variation. If they had only been capable of replication, there would have been no evolution." - You have the totally wrong end of the stick here! The code tries to ensure continuity without variation. It serves to make an exact copy of the replicant. The variations come in by accident, chance, mutation, permutation, mistake, whatever you want to call it. - dhw: "This code is so intricate that we still haven't unravelled it" - But we have unravelled the DNA code. What we don't know are the full consequences of its working. DT has posted links to a lot of article on current work being done on this.

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GPJ