Saturday, December 30, 2006

how much variance does evolution theory explain?

University of Chicago: Wu suggested: "The slowdown in genetic evolution in the more advanced organs makes sense," he said, "only when one takes a systems perspective."
http://www-news.uchicago.edu/citations/06/061226.wu-keralanext.html
I'm surprised at the use of this finding as an argument for evolution theory.
Is evolution theory 'the big theory of everything' it claims to be or does it play a more modest role?

Or is Wu right and can evolution slow down when an organism reaches a high level of organisation?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Genetically, our species has remained essentially unchanged for 130,000 years or more. The huge change in the human condition since then is due almost entirely to culture. Because we can now compensate for genetic weaknesses through cultural inventions (e.g., medical treatment), the mechanisms that promote genetic evolution are short-circuited in the human species. So we probably won't evolve much more genetically unless something drastic happens in our environment.

Odile S said...

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately I don't have easy answers to my own question. Except both the idea of creation and of a big bang I find dazzling and unimaginable and I'm inclined towards intelligent design.

Unknown said...

Odile, thanks for commenting on my post on science and faith. What do you see in ID? I'm just curious coz i think that it's just a more subtle 'god of the gaps' approach.

On the other hand I do think the the theory of evolution has hardly started its journey and certainly is not (perhaps never will be) a theory of everything...

Odile S said...

Maybe, there's some more devolution rather than evolution?
Sam,
First we need to compare notes. Maybe I have other axiomas than you do.

*new* item at Chez Odile is the metachat where Creatives and Thinkers meet.

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