More miscellany Parts One & Two (Evolution)

by David Turell , Tuesday, September 17, 2024, 20:34 (1 day, 20 hours, 19 min. ago) @ dhw

DAVID: No. First means first. The designing mind in uncaused.

dhw: Or infinite combinations of matter eventually produce primitive forms of life which evolve.

DAVID: What types of matter causes them to combine in the first place? What made those types? Nebulous as usual.

dhw: First means first. Energy and matter are “uncaused”. What type of anything causes the existence of a supreme form of consciousness? What made this mind? Nebulous as usual. Can’t you see that each of the alternative “first causes” poses questions that are equally impossible to answer?

See today's entry on matter theoretically becoming purposeful.

Earthworm DNA is weird

QUOTE: "They suspect the worm's genomes scrambled in response to shifts into new habitats, but have yet to determine which came first, the worm's ventures into freshwater and land or their genes' adventures into new positions in their genetic molecules (chromosomes).”

dhw: Common sense suggests to me that just as bacteria are able to edit their DNA in response to new conditions, the worm did the same.

DAVID: Your sense is not common, or the experts would not be puzzled.

dhw: They suspect that this is the case, and I have no idea why you are so resolutely opposed to it.

It is an extension of Shapiro's theory, which can happen factually only in bacteria.

Plate tectonics drive evolution

QUOTE: "Furthermore, we analyzed a series of environmental factors that we considered potential candidates for influencing coelacanth evolutionary rates. These included tectonic plate activity, ocean temperatures, water oxygen levels, and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.”

dhw: [..] the crucial factor is the way species change according to conditions. As with the worm, these are adaptations, and we should distinguish between brand new species (through innovation) and species of species (all the different kinds of coelacanth), but common sense suggests that both are triggered by organisms (cell communities) responding to new conditions. The autonomous ability to do so would have been designed by God, if he exists.

DAVID: Speciation is a major form of adaptation, and no one knows how it happens. Cells don't/can't form now major designs.

dhw: Since no one knows how it happens, how can you know that it DOESN’T happen Shapiro’s way?

NO EVIDENCE. Do you have some?

Intracellular communication

QUOTE; How can RNA from one branch of the tree of life be understood by organisms on another? It’s a common language, Buck said. RNA has most likely been around since the very beginning of life.

dhw: The ability of cells to communicate is, of course, a fundamental feature of the intelligence which would enable cell communities to make changes to themselves as they respond to new conditions. We know that these changes take place as adaptations, and there is no reason to suppose that they might not also extend to the innovations that result in new species.

All theoretical.