Illich Jackal
31-03-2005, 16:52
Some not so random, yet random ideas about evolution:
1) Evolution is in general not a biological theory, but rather a mathematical one.
If you have numerous objects that multiply themselves with the following aspects:
-Some sort of ‘blueprint’ or ‘memory’ that determine the chances of the object having certain qualities.
-A process that can change portions of this ‘blueprint’.
-A most likely changing environment in which objects have different chances of survival and multiplying themselves based on the qualities mentioned above.
Then you have evolution in the system. Suppose all objects are identical at the start. Object A ‘mutates’ and the blueprint changes a bit, and is the first to do so. Object B comes from object A and because of the change develops a certain quality – which happens to be advantage in the current environment. Object B will now multiply itself more than the original objects and its kind will become more common in the overall population. Eventually there will only objects of the same type as B.
If you build a function f(t) (time dependent) that represents the entire population of objects at the time t, then evolution would be some sort of (very complex) differential equation:
g(t,f(t),f’(t),f’’(t),…) = 0
Note: Every event (earthquakes, the varying energy we get from the sun, meteor crashes, …) is a part of this equation – making it unsolvable even in principle for anyone but a hypothetical Demon of Laplace for the determinists out there.
Now a very important factor in differential equations are the begin conditions, in our case: what was the original set of objects we started with? And a less mathematical question might be: how did this original set get there?
2) Application to biological evolution
As objects, we take all living things. We see that the above can be applied because we have:
-DNA (and other self-replicating molecules – RNA) that serve as a ‘memory’. I don’t like the word ‘blueprint’ in this case as the end result also depends on circumstances, with the DNA just determining chances of developing a certain trait and not being an actual blueprint.
-change of the DNA: Sunlight can cause mutations, errors in the replication of the DNA can occur, with more ‘advanced’ species: two sets of DNA recombine, bacteria and/or viri (I don’ know for sure if both can, but at least one type can) inject parts of their DNA into your cells, chemicals can alter your DNA, …
-Natural selection: We see it all around us. A lion that can run faster than another lion is better at hunting and has a natural advantage - unless the hunting advantage gained is smaller than the disadvantage of consuming more energy by being able to run faster.
Thus we have the ‘differential equation’ mentioned above with species more or less slowly evolving into new species. This can be observed in bacteria, breeding of dogs, etc. and is undeniable.
The ‘problem’ for any opponent of evolution that does not deny the fact (it can be observed) that bacteria evolve are the begin conditions.
3) Begin condition: The first cell
From now on, evolution will not only mean the process of evolution, but also the study of this process throughout the ages.
Evolution assumes that something capable of evolving came out of a soup of organic chemicals a couple of billion years ago. This in itself is a theory and I am not going to discuss it here, but it gives us a couple of ways to support evolution:
-We can try to create something capable of evolving in a lab experiment.
-After that, we can try to do this in a lab simulating the conditions of early earth.
This is the begin condition. An important conclusion we get from this condition:
If we ‘go back in time’, we should see that our set of species converges to one species, the latter being composed of only 1 cell.
The begin condition used by creationists – those that oppose evolution, not those that say god created the first cells - is that a set containing a lot of different species, with the difference being detectable, came into existence. If we hold this as true and go back in time, we may not see our set of species converging to one species near our beginning.
This is where fossil records and DNA research (comparing the DNA of a man and an ape for example) come into play. They show again the process of evolution, species evolving into other species. They also provide a test for the begin condition of evolution: convergent or not?
We see that species A and B must have had a common ancestor, this ancestor then had a common ancestor with species C, … In general, what we have indicates that our set of species converges when we go back in time, disproving the begin condition of non-evolutionists and supporting that of evolutionists.
Thank you for your time.
1) Evolution is in general not a biological theory, but rather a mathematical one.
If you have numerous objects that multiply themselves with the following aspects:
-Some sort of ‘blueprint’ or ‘memory’ that determine the chances of the object having certain qualities.
-A process that can change portions of this ‘blueprint’.
-A most likely changing environment in which objects have different chances of survival and multiplying themselves based on the qualities mentioned above.
Then you have evolution in the system. Suppose all objects are identical at the start. Object A ‘mutates’ and the blueprint changes a bit, and is the first to do so. Object B comes from object A and because of the change develops a certain quality – which happens to be advantage in the current environment. Object B will now multiply itself more than the original objects and its kind will become more common in the overall population. Eventually there will only objects of the same type as B.
If you build a function f(t) (time dependent) that represents the entire population of objects at the time t, then evolution would be some sort of (very complex) differential equation:
g(t,f(t),f’(t),f’’(t),…) = 0
Note: Every event (earthquakes, the varying energy we get from the sun, meteor crashes, …) is a part of this equation – making it unsolvable even in principle for anyone but a hypothetical Demon of Laplace for the determinists out there.
Now a very important factor in differential equations are the begin conditions, in our case: what was the original set of objects we started with? And a less mathematical question might be: how did this original set get there?
2) Application to biological evolution
As objects, we take all living things. We see that the above can be applied because we have:
-DNA (and other self-replicating molecules – RNA) that serve as a ‘memory’. I don’t like the word ‘blueprint’ in this case as the end result also depends on circumstances, with the DNA just determining chances of developing a certain trait and not being an actual blueprint.
-change of the DNA: Sunlight can cause mutations, errors in the replication of the DNA can occur, with more ‘advanced’ species: two sets of DNA recombine, bacteria and/or viri (I don’ know for sure if both can, but at least one type can) inject parts of their DNA into your cells, chemicals can alter your DNA, …
-Natural selection: We see it all around us. A lion that can run faster than another lion is better at hunting and has a natural advantage - unless the hunting advantage gained is smaller than the disadvantage of consuming more energy by being able to run faster.
Thus we have the ‘differential equation’ mentioned above with species more or less slowly evolving into new species. This can be observed in bacteria, breeding of dogs, etc. and is undeniable.
The ‘problem’ for any opponent of evolution that does not deny the fact (it can be observed) that bacteria evolve are the begin conditions.
3) Begin condition: The first cell
From now on, evolution will not only mean the process of evolution, but also the study of this process throughout the ages.
Evolution assumes that something capable of evolving came out of a soup of organic chemicals a couple of billion years ago. This in itself is a theory and I am not going to discuss it here, but it gives us a couple of ways to support evolution:
-We can try to create something capable of evolving in a lab experiment.
-After that, we can try to do this in a lab simulating the conditions of early earth.
This is the begin condition. An important conclusion we get from this condition:
If we ‘go back in time’, we should see that our set of species converges to one species, the latter being composed of only 1 cell.
The begin condition used by creationists – those that oppose evolution, not those that say god created the first cells - is that a set containing a lot of different species, with the difference being detectable, came into existence. If we hold this as true and go back in time, we may not see our set of species converging to one species near our beginning.
This is where fossil records and DNA research (comparing the DNA of a man and an ape for example) come into play. They show again the process of evolution, species evolving into other species. They also provide a test for the begin condition of evolution: convergent or not?
We see that species A and B must have had a common ancestor, this ancestor then had a common ancestor with species C, … In general, what we have indicates that our set of species converges when we go back in time, disproving the begin condition of non-evolutionists and supporting that of evolutionists.
Thank you for your time.