OT: Evolution

[Bill Wood]

On Tue, 19 Sep 2000 14:52:44 +0100 (BST), Simon Bowring wrote:

>On Tue, 19 Sep 2000 06:14:04 -0700, Bill Wood wrote:
>
>>Evolution is change. Usually random, but not always. Then the
>>change, whatever its origin, is thrown into the arena of real life
>>and it either survives or it doesn't. Etc.

>Agreed!
>
>>Now that we are getting visibility of human DNA coding, it seems to
>>be a ... mess ... not even rudimentary error correction

>I'd dispute that, but not backed up with facts right now, but even
>the number of bases (4) seems like it may be an evolutionary 
>adaptation which is a compromise between reliability and information 
>content (apparently)!

This observation I got from the book 'Dreams of a Final Theory' by
Nobel Laureate particle physicist, Steven Weinberg. I'm taking his
word for it. His assertion (paraphrased) is that an undergraduate
digital designer would have made a more elegant use of the coding
potential of the medium, including error correction.

>>This supports the notion of a random process. This is probably not a good 
>>model for software development, but it may be better than what is 
>>actually done.
>
Here, I was being ... ironic.


w3

Bill Wood
Las Vegas, NV
wwwood@lv.rmci.net

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