Date: Wed, 22 Apr 1998 10:10:14 -0700 (PDT) From: callihan-AT-callihan.seanet.com (Steven E. Callihan) Subject: Re: Q on : The Survival Of The Fittest Floom >Steven E. Callihan=1B$B!!=1B(Jwrote : > >>Actually, the majority of the genetic code isn't referenced at all, sort of >>like files on your hard drive that have been deleted, but are actually still >>there. Most mutations occur in just such sections of the code. Thus, a >>single mutation to the FAT, so to speak, can cause a whole genetic sequence >>to be activated that had previously been dormant. In this sense, whole new >>behavioural repetories and morphisms can come into being at, seemingly, a >>single leap. > >Could you give an example of that ? > >Best regards, Jota It might explain, for instance, how a behaviour such as a bird mimicing an injury in order to lure a predator (hawk, eagle) away from its fledglings came into being. This could occur from the change of a pointer, if you will, to a previously unused and, thus, *more liable to be garbled* section of genetic code. That the garbled code might resemble the mimicing of an injury would be purely accidental. It would simply be this resemblance, in other words, that might prove evolutionarily useful, while a scrambled sequence that did not cause a behaviour resembling an injury would prove less useful--the bird or its fledglings would be eaten (the show closed on opening night!). The point is that the bird isn't actually mimicing an injury, but executing a garbled genetic sequence that just happens to resemble the mimicing of an injury. The bird, of course, must also be genetically endowed with the ability to escape from the hawk/eagle once it has been lured. Birds whose scrambled flight responses do not resemble having an injury would perhaps be more likely to have their fledglings eaten, while those without the subsequent ability to elude the hawk/eagle once it had been lured would likely be eaten themselves (and their fledglings would starve). For an excellent explanation of the unused genetic code areas, read _Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors_ by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan, Ballantine Books, New York, 1992. Best, Steve ------------------------------------------------------------------------- =A6 Steven E. Callihan =A6 "It is the stillest words that bring =A6 =A6 =A6 on the storm. Thoughts that come on =A6 =A6 =A6 doves' feet guide the world." =A6 =A6 URL: http://www.callihan.com/ =A6 -F. Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra,=A6 =A6 E-Mail: callihan-AT-callihan.com =A6 II, "The Stillest Hour" =A6 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- from list nietzsche-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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