Leonard Matusik <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> asked
How can blind cave fish could result purely from random mutations
... ?
Well, the word `random' is misleading since after the
non-exact-replications, the survivors are selected to survive.
The word `random' is accurate in that you cannot specify which births
show the relevant non-exact-replications; and you cannot specify how
many generations will pass before all the fish become blind; and you
cannot specify how many individuals in each generation make up a
population. You have to do all this probabilistically.
But the word is not as useful a concept as the notion of `selection'.
Randomness makes selection more possible and efficient.
You probably want to ask
How can a population of blind cave fish result from occasional
non-exact-replications in which a portion of those born in each
generation make a lower investment in unnecessary resources than
their competitors and are more likely to survive than their
competitors?
I know that is a long sentence. But the question involves
1. blind cave fish
2. non-exact-replications
3. population thinking, not individual thinking
4. many generations, each with a large enough population
5. selection for reproduction of those who are best adapted to the
environment at that time for survival for reproduction
Off hand, I cannot think of a shorter sentence that includes all those
concepts.
It would be great if someone else can.
--
Robert J. Chassell
[EMAIL PROTECTED] GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8
http://www.rattlesnake.com http://www.teak.cc
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