Re: Evolution is alive and well
Moorad Alexanian (alexanian@UNCWIL.EDU)
Wed, 07 Oct 1998 13:58:11 -0500 (EST)
At 11:49 AM 10/7/98 -0400, Bill Hamilton wrote:
>At 09:40 AM 10/7/98 -0600, Terry M. Gray quoted from an article in _Science_:
>
>>"Notwithstanding this recent metamorphosis, many mysteries in the field
>>remain to challenge us. Complex evolutionary phenomena are difficult to
>>explain from well-understood elemental mechanisms, just as the weather
>>proves difficult to predict despite advances in basic physics."
>>
>Interesting that they should choose weather as an analogy. Weather is
>difficult to predict because its underlying dynamics are chaotic. One
>model for weather dynamics is the Lorenz differential equation -- a fairly
>innocent-looking nonlinear D. E. which produces unpredictable behavior.
>Understanding the basic physics of weather doesn't help. The governing
>dynamical equations are nonlinear and exhibit sensitive dependence on
>initial conditions. I suspect the same is true of evolution. An
>interesting aspect of many chaotic systems is that they are unpredictable
>even though they are deterministic. In fact one of the best examples of
>this sort of phenomenon is the so-called random number generators used on
>computers.
>
>Bill Hamilton
I fail to see how evolutionary theory is a la par with basic physics. That
sort of comparison pretends a scientific respectability for evolutionary
theory which it clearly does not possess.
Moorad