[B][QUOTE]Simmilar to Communist in Russia, Evolution today is forced down our troughts, whether we like it or not, just as Communist was forced down on the poor Russians.[/B][/QUOTE]
Or like Christianity?
[B][QUOTE]To you it might be a fact, but, for heaven sake, don't force it down on people that doesn't want to hear it.[/B][/QUOTE]
You think the school curriculum should take into account what some people want to hear, even if it is in conflict with the generally accepted view? So for example, schools should not teach spelling, because some people happen to believe in free-spelling, phonetic spelling, the Shavian alphabet, Glossic, Romic, or other spelling reforms? It is, after all, a subject in which you in particular might have an interest.
[B][QUOTE]Unlike other sciences, evolution does not contrubute very much to the modernisation of society, so why is it important anyway? Astronomy, on the other hand, will one day become very useful when we start colonizing other planets.[/B][/QUOTE]
I suspect the growth of the entire biotechnology industry has passed unnoticed by you.
[B][QUOTE]No random mutation can be positive. I'm a programmer. If someone who doesn't know a thing about computer languages come and randomly change something in my code, the chance is 99.999999999999999999999% that it will case an error.[/B][/QUOTE]
You wouldn't get a job with me, then. Your code should expect errors. What happens when a byte is randomly corrupted on your hard disk, or in a stream? I strongly recommend Steve MacGuire's "Writing Solid Code" from Microsoft Press if you need help in this area.
Perhaps you were thinking about the precompiled code itself? That if someone made a change in that it would not even compile? Not sure how that relates to biology - in fact I have little time for the whole genome/ information metaphor. But your example depends entirely on which programming language you use. Perhaps you should explore logic-based, prototype-based, reflective, self-descriptive,
policy-specification or formal-specification languages.
For an example from the logical programming paradigm, take a legal line of Prolog describing an imaginary bird's reflex:
avoid(bat,near).
Of these 16 characters only 25% would cause an error if mutated: the parentheses, the comma and the stop. Some of the mutations could be beneficial:
avoid(cat,near).
avoid(bat,hear).
void(cat,near). /*in this case one would not wish to be standing under the bird */
Other mutations would be neutral in that they would not be understood or would not "do anything" because their conditions would never be met. In a real genome many millions of mutations lead to inviable errors - huge numbers of such mutations result in miscarriages, pregnancies which never really get started etc. Many other mutations would be neutral and others beneficial. It's not so very difficult to grasp.[B][QUOTE]Why is there not a single shred of evidence of a transitional form, both today or in the fossil records? I know that the newest theory says that evolution happens in leaps, but surely not within a single generation? Then with all the millions of changes there was in animals, surely some of those must have been preserved? Surely, at the very least there sould be one?[/B][/QUOTE]
What kind of transitional form do you think should exist. For example, if mammals evolved from reptiles what kind of transitional would you expect to find?[B][QUOTE]Let us discuss how the creatures with two sexes evolved from something that can procreate on its own. What does a creature look like with one and a halve sex? Surely this transition must have been a long process. But then why would creatures have developed two sexes in the first place, if the original form could've procreated on its own? And why two sexes, and not more? [/B][/QUOTE]
The evolution is sex is a topic of great interest to biologists (as you can guess, anything touching upon sex generates interest in any field of study) and a simple google search for "evolution of sex" will give you much information. Mushrooms, by the way, have over 36000 sexes. Slime moulds (just about my favourite life form after my immediate family) have 13 sexes. This makes slime mould porn extremely difficult to follow, but very entertaining once you get the hang of it.[B][QUOTE]Lets talk about that one thing many people that believe only in the laws of science want to avoid. Your self conciousness.[/B][/QUOTE]
Many people want to avoid? Its just one of the hottest topics in science, philosophy and computing. However, you appear to have little knowledge of these areas, so I should not be surprised it has passed you by. Perhaps you should read some of the links at
http://directory.google.com/...of_Mind/Consciousness_Studies For articifial consciousness, have a look at
mindpixel- Business & Tech Tips and News BlogThere is a vast amount of research and interest in this field. It is highly complex and intellectually taxing - but Daniel Dennett and John Searle write with considerable clarity and insight on this subject: try getting some of their work from the library. Whatever your viewpoint, I am sure you will find it fascinating.
[B][QUOTE]If you could make atoms self aware, why am I, I?[/B][/QUOTE]
But if I am not part and parcel of the atoms of my body, why do I have a sense that my body is part of what makes me, me.
[This message has been edited by Mister Pamboli, 09-10-2002]
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