Evolution: more genomic evidence of pre-planning (Evolution)

by David Turell , Wednesday, February 17, 2021, 18:07 (1373 days ago) @ dhw

Pre-planning

DAVID: The point is preparatory changes in DNA.
And:
DAVID: But it only took 61 new genes to do the job. The article just proves the difference at the genetic level. And we learned to use the better brain much later than its appearance with those genes.

dhw: The fact that it only took 61 genes to make our brains different from Neanderthal brains tells us nothing about how or why or when the brain changed, and it certainly does not mean that your God changed them in preparation for anything. I have suggested that stasis is common to ALL stages of brain change and only ends when there are new activities or requirements. And finally, there is no evidence provided by the modern brain that changes take place in preparation for new activities.

DAVID: The facts are exactly the opposite. Sapiens big brains appeared over 300,000 year ago with no new use of them until the last 10-15,000 years ago. Why do big brains in any group appear before new use is learned?

dhw: “Exactly the opposite”? The 285,000 years are the period of stasis, and I have just repeated my proposal that ALL stages of brain development have followed the same pattern: the brain changes when there are new activities or requirements. Once those activities are established and the requirements are fulfilled, THE BRAIN DOES NOT NEED TO CHANGE. Hence stasis, until new activities and requirements require the next change.

You are presenting a giant brain waiting for future use, appearing and then just lying around for for 285,000 years for full use. You have not answered why so big so early. Early sapiens lived in a very similar way to erectus. What demanded such a large change if a drive cannot be identified as a requirement for living?

DAVID: My pre-programming thought always included the concept that early bacteria contained coding for further advances, as shown in current research in a new entry today.

dhw: What do you mean by “coding”? Why have you switched from “mechanism”?

DAVID: Why the question. DNA is coding and DNA changes ran/runs evolution.

dhw: We don’t know what ran/runs evolution! You say God preprogrammes or personally dabbles the changes to DNA, but I - and certain scientists who are far more knowledgeable about these matters than I am – have suggested that there is a mechanism within the cell/cell community, i.e. the equivalent of a brain (possibly God-given) which organizes the changes.

DAVID: Again stretching Shapiro's findings into your cellular intelligence theory.

dhw: How many more times do you want me to quote the passages YOU quote in your own book?
“Living cells are cognitive (sentient) entities that act and interact purposefully to ensure survival, growth, and proliferation…Cells are built to evolve; they have the ability to alter their hereditary characteristics…Evolutionary novelty arises from the production of new cell and multicellular structures as a result of cellular self-modification…”

Please stop pretending that Shapiro does not mean what he says.

I don't pretend. I quoted him from his book. He and you extrapolate a theory from bacterial studies. His presentation the Royal Society was a more measured presentation. And I presented it here in the past. Perhaps you should refresh your memory.