Universal Intelligence (The nature of a \'Creator\')

by David Turell , Saturday, September 26, 2009, 00:28 (5536 days ago) @ George Jelliss


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> 153. Comment #414703 by Steve Zara on September 13, 2009 at 7:41 pm 
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> There is a rather wonderful model of how life began. Actually, it is more like a set of models, but they all have the same foundation - life began as polymers of RNA. Richard mentions this idea in his latest book. It is called the "RNA World". If it is true, then evolution is there right at the very start. It could be said it is the origin of what we would call life. 
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> It works like this: In a certain environment, countless long strands of RNA formed. This looks quite feasible for several reasons. There are only 4 possible bases at each position along the RNA strand, so a particular sequence is hugely more likely than the equivalent for proteins, where there would be at least 20 possibilities. Also, we now know of several physical and chemical environments that could have been present on the early Earth where RNA polymerizes quite nicely. It also looks likely that all the nucleotides would have been around in some quantity.
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> So, strands of RNA which catalyse their own formation, and which make mistakes in that formation, so allowing for variation to be selected by the environment, sound like a very likely possible origin of life, and would involve selection of nucleotide sequences, which would have directly coded for structure and catalytic activity right at the very start. 
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> We have produced such RNA strands in the laboratory, so we know that they exist. We also know that in Nature RNA sometimes has catalytic activity - it works like enzymes.
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> So, this is selection of digital information - evolution by Natural Selection.
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> If the RNA World model is the right one, abiogenesis IS evolution: digitally replicating molecules are the origin of life.-DHW asked me to comment on this entry from Dawkins commentary area on his website.-This acolyte, Zara, swallows Dawkins writings, hook, line and sinker, and we now know he, Dawkins, like to fudge his facts. The RNA world is a postulated beginning for life and the idea has gone nowhere. Yes, there are naturally occurring RNAzymes used in protein production under the genetic direction of DNA. Naturally occurring self-replicating RNAzymes only exist as developed by human intelligent design in the laboratory after many years of effort. Recently one was developed that replicated without error. Before that error rates were as high as 5%. Also it is quite clear that we do not know of environmentally friendly climates in which RNA could polymerize easily. The premises of this comment are so off base (To use an American baseball term) as to be funny. Leslie Orgel who was a proponent of the RNA World finally renounced that idea. The best book to read currently about all this is "Genesis" by Robert M. Hazen, 2005. Hazen is a long-time researcher in the origin of life field.-The moral is: read for yourself. People like Dawkins have an agenda. Books by true authorities are out there. I don't trust folks like Dawkins. I think it is more intellectually honest to go to authorities in each field, reach your own summaries for yourself, and don't trust others.