[ExI] Tim May and DNA

[John Clark]

On Fri, Feb 8, 2019 at 12:56 PM William Flynn Wallace <foozler83 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> just why doesn't DNA produce things like one ear smaller or some other
> thing that will not help or hurt survival?
>

You've forgotten sexual selection. A lack of ear symmetry WOULD hurt the
genes survival prospects because a lopsided ear gene would make it far more
difficult for the phenotype resulting from that gene to find a mate.

> I think DNA is smart.  I would not say aware or planning - that's
> teleological.  But I just can't see it doing things randomly.
>

I strongly suggest you read Richard Dawkins "The Selfish Gene", an
absolutely wonderful book that shows how something as apparently simple as
random mutation and natural selection can produce incredible mind bending
complexity. It was Dawkins first book and I read it back in the 70s,
recently he updated it and I bought the audiobook so I could listen to it
on my long commute to work. And it's better than ever!

 John K Clark
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20190208/89fa46b1/attachment.html>