An inventive mechanism: another outside discussion (Evolution)

by David Turell , Friday, October 10, 2014, 02:15 (3696 days ago) @ dhw


> David No firm answers for how speciation occurs. Shapiro and his ilk are avoided.
> 
> dhw:I was naturally disappointed that there was no mention of the crucial need for more research into what McClintock called “knowledge the cell has of itself, and how it utilizes this knowledge in a ‘thoughtful' manner when challenged.”-Overintrepreting McClintock as usual. Shapiro, her acolyte, describes how the genome is changed by methylation, etc. The genome of the cells is in charge. Remember the genome is in the nucleus which has a semipermeable membrane and it receives molecular information from the rest of the cell which reports stimuli it is receiving from its outer membrane to the nucleus. There is a hierarchy of control I'm trying to get you to recognize. You are lumping and I am splitting tp follow the lines of control.-> dhw: The authors seem to take it for granted that once there are new opportunities, organisms will simply turn themselves into new species. We're not expected to ask how. Random mutations don't fit in, since the link with environmental changes can hardly be called random, but “plasticity” isn't much use unless there's some sort of intelligent mechanism to mould it. However, on the plus side I would interpret the above findings as support for the hypothesis that even the Cambrian can be explained by a change in the environment offering new opportunities for inventive mechanisms to cooperate in producing new forms of life.-Yes, intelligence is needed. Did you read the other part of the reference in which old-time Darwinists are agast at their proposal and they almost fully reject it? And you bring up the subject of environmental change. Perhaps evolution is simply a method of overcoming vast changes in nature. What was present on Earth 3.7 byo is not today's Earth. Vast changes. Perhaps life's responses, as an evolutionary mechanism, are totally driven by nature. Chicxulub and the dinos!