Re: Neoteny was Re: god makes hubey
H. M. Hubey (hubey@pegasus.montclair.edu)
27 Nov 1995 22:11:41 -0500
bbur@wpo.nerc.ac.uk (Bill Burnett) writes:
>I hate to disappoint you but you can't learn evolutionary theory from a
>dictionary. Behind all those names you love to loath there is meaning, Mark,
The big problem these days is that because of the perceived
threat from creationists some of what is being said has gone
too far to the other ridiculous extreme. Add to this the
latest fashion called PC, and we got a mess.
Yes, I know what evolution is, and you want find one place
where the concept of higher-lower is not explicit in the whole
idea of evolution. If it weren't so there'd be nothing on
earth except some simple single-cell organisms or something
along those lines. Everyone wants to say so but can't.
>Would you be prepared to admit that the hearing system of bats is more complex
>than ours?
Yes.
Yet bats are clearly less intelligent.
>How about the digestive system of ruminants? Wow, all those stomachs. Yet
>even I can out-think a cow.
Yes.
>How about bacterial dna polymerases that can withstand heat up to 94'C. More
>'advanced' than ours? No great thinkers there.
No.
>Viruses which knock out our immune systems? Are they less advanced than our
>immune systems?
No.
Second law of thermodynamics does not say that there can be no
local spot where entropy decreases. Similarly I never made the
statement that not a single component of any organism is more
complex than the corresponding one in ours. I said that "we"
are more highly evolved, and "we" refers to the whole organism
not to the hearing system, not to our foot, not to our stomach....
Surely nobody has any problems with that.
Of course, the big stumbling block is still producing an
explicit measure of complexity.
--
Regards, Mark
http://www.smns.montclair.edu/~hubey
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