Post by Karl Aksel on Nov 8, 2019 5:21:52 GMT
Nov 7, 2019 9:23:45 GMT:
Karl Aksel said: [full text here]< clips >
1) Yes, mutations are - for all intents and purposes - random ... they are random in the sense that they cannot be predicted.
2) If the [random] mutation was advantageous
2) I understand evolutionary theory, but this discussion in not about evolution.
Changed your mind? You see, this is the post you replied to:
"I wonder, are you aware that no-one credible actually says that evolution is a process achieved through a series of accidents?"
Which prompted you to accuse him of being a Lamarckian. Which would only make sense if you thought Darwinian evolution was random.
This discussion is about how lifeless matter might become a living cell and by what agencies.
No it's not - it's about evolution. I read your OP.
Once you have a living species it has rather elaborate defenses against the environment. Before you have that there are no defenses. In a prebiotic environment smaller chains of RNA and smaller molecules have the competitive advantage over longer chains and molecules. The elaborate defenses are not yet in place. Any "improvement" in the small chains is readily lost.
Sure, any improvement is readily lost even today. But any improvement has a much higher chance of being passed on than a disadvantage. At least in the animal kingdom - less so but in an environment before life, there is no threat from other life forms. And since the environment in which life first formed was bound to be pretty homogenous, there wouldn't have been that many threats.