File spoon-archives/nietzsche.archive/nietzsche_1998/nietzsche.9804, message 89


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
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