Genome complexity: seemingly not in obvious DNA (Introduction)

by David Turell , Tuesday, July 07, 2020, 18:05 (1389 days ago) @ dhw
edited by David Turell, Tuesday, July 07, 2020, 18:11

DAVID: The need for accommodation for an enlarged brain required all the changes I noted, including changes in or by three individuals, father, Mother, and new-sized baby. Cell committees must be clairvoyant to cooperate as dhw describes.

dhw: No doubt there would have been many deaths before the adaptation was complete, but in all cases, the cell communities respond to changes – they do not anticipate them. I find this more plausible than your God stepping in and fiddling with a group of homos who wake up next morning with bigger brains, skulls and pelvises.

And I do not believe cell committees can create new species, which is your claim.

Under “the obstetric dilemma”: The maternal pelvis is frequently considered to be subject to two counteracting evolutionary forces: decreased height and increased mediolateral breadth in order to optimize the biomechanics of locomotion, and increased anteroposterior dimensions in order to enable birth of the unusually encephalized human infant. The compromise imposed by these antagonistic demands manifests as a difficult passage of the fetal head through the birth canal, resulting in the birth process being a more complex and lengthy procedure in humans than in closely related species of ape. The antagonistic interaction of bipedalism and encephalization has been assumed to have followed the emergence of the large Homo brain within the last 2 million years. (David’s bold)

DAVID: This obstetric dilemma is a major evolutionary issue as this review makes quite clear, and even has major obstetric importance today. I don't believe dhw's 'smart cooperating' cells could solve the problems by themselves, but God could easily.

dhw: The above puts paid to your God’s overnight expansion of brain, skull and pelvis, and clearly shows that the whole process of maternal pelvis adaptation was not only long but also difficult, and is still difficult today. Why did your God, who could do it “easily”, make it so lengthy and so difficult? I see nothing in this whole article to contradict the proposal I have put forward. The only new factor is the requirements of “locomotion” (itself a possible cause of brain expansion).

Nothing 'put paid'. The new pelvis for upright posture and birthing large baby brain was a complicated redesign of the pelvis. Please remember Lucy had a tiny brain but her pelvis had adapted for mainly upright locomotion. Real brain expansion followed this in newer species. But the resultant very new pelvic shape still requires our difficult births. It is a trade off: we have full use of arms and hands and apes do not. As for why God took time, please remember my observation that God likes to evolve: the universe, the giant Milky Way which gobbled/es up satellite galaxies, the Earth, and then life. You never deny this, just ignore it.

DAVID: There are gene relationships we do not understand and layers of control that are still being discovered. we still do not know how cells produce the results they control.

dhw: David is quite right: “we do not know how cells produce the results they control”. But the very statement that they control the results might suggest that cellular intelligence (possibly designed by a God) is a very plausible alternative to chance, divine preprogramming and divine dabbling.

DAVID: Again glossing over 'cell intelligence'. It had a definite cause, but dhw's wishy-washy discussion leaves the source hanging. Chance or God the designer?

dhw: I am delighted that your comment offers no opposition to the theory of cellular intelligence. I don’t “gloss over” the cause – I openly admit that I don’t know whether it’s chance, God, or some form of panpsychism.

The 'glossing over' refers to a source of the appearance of 'cellular intelligence', which you have just enumerated, adding panpsychism, a nebulous invention that simply pushed further away the issue of where did panpsychism come from, if it even exists? I remind cells follow intelligent instructions implanted by God so they will function properly.