N.Wells
Posts: 1836
Joined: Oct. 2005
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| Quote (GaryGaulin @ Aug. 18 2014,02:32) | | Quote (Nomad @ Aug. 18 2014,02:21) | | Yours is hard coded to perform a single task. |
No it's not. There is even a Design form I started to show how what was know about finch beak design can be varied without needing virtual cells to make virtual finches and other birds:
https://www.planet-source-code.com/vb....n....ngWId=1 |
Okay, that's a nice-looking output, you appear to have understood what science understands about beak growth promoters, and you are dealing with the effects of molecules. It finally deals with real phenomena, as opposed to metaphors like your subway cartoon. I also agree that you do not need the rest of the finch to show how beak shape can change.
Now we get to ground-truthing. What causes levels of those proteins to change? Is there any evidence that organisms can decide to amp up one of the molecules if they need a different beak shape, or whether they can tinker with their genes to ramp up or tamp down activity levels in their offspring?
The evidence is quite clear on this. Production levels are under genetic control. The finches cannot modify their own beak shape or their offsprings' beak shapes at will. Simply, individuals vary in their beak production capabilities due to inherited genetic variation (recombination) plus mutations, and during certain situations some variants die preferentially, so the next generation consists of more offspring of the favored beak form.
It is not impossible that environmental signals experienced by a growing bird can trigger greater or lesser production of some proteins. That does not inherently make it inheritable, although there are potential ways for allowing epigenetic inheritance. However, available evidence points to a simpler situation: conditions change, and some versions die; conditions change again, and some versions have better reproductive success, and as success changes, the genetic composition of the next generation changes too.
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