Zachriel
Posts: 2723
Joined: Sep. 2006
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| Quote | | JayM: {MET} works because it is so limited. |
| Quote | | jerry: There are no limits according to the MET. |
Of course there are limits. Evolution tends to search explore only nearby areas of the landscape.
| Quote | | jerry: The future will show the way as new mappings of genomes and more understanding of the function of non coding elements will tell one how feathers are formed and bats have radar and why mammals do not lay eggs etc. |
Bats have biosonar (echolocation), not radar. Some mammals do lay eggs.
| Quote | | Mark Frank: All this talk of islands of function in the sea of possible proteins (or DNA) made me think that it would be more appropriate to talk of evolution exploring the functional space rather than searching it. |
An apt distinction.
| Quote | JayM: His point, as I understand it, is that the “search strategy” provided by MET mechanisms explores only very small regions around the current, known viable, point. Since viable points in genome space are not uniformly distributed, this search doesn’t need to look at all possible sequences. It works because it is so limited.
gpuccio: Nonsense. No search needs to look at all possible sequences. In a random search, it is just a question of reasonable probabilities. And a search limited to the surroundings of what already exixts will never find anything distant.
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In other words, if we take one step at a time, we'll never get anywhere.
| Quote | djmullen: A few decades ago, a family in Milano, Italy was found to almost never have heart attacks. The cause of their good fortune was tracked down to a single point mutation in the DNA that codes for Apolipoprotein A-I. The new molecule, Apolipoprotein A-Imilano removes cholesteral and atherosclerotic plaque.
jerry: The MET says that evolution is stumbling but the question is how often is what is found useful, or really “how” useful. It finds useful things but can it find combinations that are novel complex and functional. |
"How useful"? I don't know, but most people would think that resistance to heart attacks is rather useful.
| Quote | | gpuccio: Isn’t anybody else tired of reading “inconsistent and intellectually frustrating” posts from a couple of people? I am. And yes, this is a totally unsupported claim. |
Possible early warning on bannination.
| Quote | | JayM: I am as well. The kind of unsupported, overbroad assertions made by some long time participants here do the ID cause no favors. |
Ouch.
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You never step on the same tard twice—for it's not the same tard and you're not the same person.
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