Peter & SLPx et al
I think we all agree that genomic sequences are 'special' - they're not random - who cares how they came to be - they are special now - they code for folded and function proteins.
You guys believe that you can get a minimal genome randomly and then that this genome will, over time, end up with new genes that will form organs, limbs and cellualr systems etc. This is where the debate should be focused. Surely we all agree that what we now have in genomes is special and finely tuned.
As we have discussed before, in itself the genomic sequence and the protein sequences look pretty random. But train a neural netweork on it and it will find a systematic lack of randomness. a neural netweork would discover consecutive codons coding for alpha-helical secondary structure and simlar streches for beta-strands. There is definte informaiton content even if analysed by something that doesn't know what to look for. This is exactly the same with a computer. Examining a hard disk in binary it would look loke junk. In ascii one would find patterns.
[This message has been edited by Tranquility Base, 08-12-2002]