caffeine writes:
I would agree that the analogy is not really relevant, but not because an SNP mutation does increase information. Does it?
On arrival in the individual, it changes information without increase, but its arrival in the population would increase information. If, however, it went to fixation replacing the old allele, we're back to square one if we're assuming the functional information content of all functional alleles to be about equal.
So, a lineage can evolve in this way, replacing allele after allele, and become a very different organism without requiring any overall increase in information at all.
However, if both alleles remain, as in the pocket mouse example Taq often gives, where we start with mice of one colour, and end up with two colours in two different environments, then information has been added. In that sort of way, the life system as a whole certainly can add information by branching, and do so without increasing the quantity of information or complexity of any particular lineage.
Of course, some lineages have increased the quantity of functional information considerably when compared to a likely LUCA, and further up the thread I was pointing to some of the ways in which additional coding genes can be added within a lineage.
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