Epigenetics: Passing the effects (Introduction)

by dhw, Thursday, February 05, 2015, 19:26 (3580 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: The authors link this development with an increase in oxygen (a factor which some researchers also link to the Cambrian Explosion). No doubt you will see this as another piece of your God's preprogramming, passed on by the first cells, but I can't help feeling it fits in perfectly with the concept of cells themselves experimenting as the environment offers new opportunities.-DAVID: I have never denied that organisms have self-evolutionary abilities. I've discussed epigenetics endlessly here. It is the issue of how independent those abilities are that we are in disagreement about. -Your argument has always been that cells / cell communities are automatons obeying instructions. You have, however, recently tried to introduce a concept of semi-autonomy. We have agreed that no organism can “self-evolve” beyond the limits imposed by its own nature and by the environment, but for you even the weaverbird cannot be granted a sufficient degree of autonomy to design its own nest. That is why I find your concept of semi-autonomy totally unsatisfactory, and have asked if you think the bird just designs half of its nest.
 
DAVID: I still think your Darwin roots from earlier in your life play a role. But I admit you seem to have accepted much of my anti-Darwin-theory proposals.-Yes, they play a significant role, because I believe that all living organisms except the first descended from earlier organisms. (Natural Selection seems to me self-evident, though in Darwin's time it wasn't.) I do accept your objections to random mutations and gradualism, and had already done so when I wrote the “brief guide”, but the breadth of your own scientific knowledge has been of huge benefit to me in understanding the problems associated with the theory of chance. When I opened this website seven years ago, I expressed the hope that by combining our discoveries, we might help one another to gain new insights. You have done this on a scale far beyond what I could have hoped for, and thanks to you, George, BBella, Tony, Matt and many others who have come and gone, even though I'm still on the fence, I have a much broader view!