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From: msellers@mntgfx.MENTOR.COM (Mike Sellers)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Why are Humans as Smart as They Are?
Message-ID: <865@mntgfx.MENTOR.COM>
Date: Wed, 12-Aug-87 15:59:20 EDT
Article-I.D.: mntgfx.865
Posted: Wed Aug 12 15:59:20 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 15-Aug-87 08:53:39 EDT
References: <243@etn-rad.UUCP> <376@hubcap.UUCP>
Organization: Mentor Graphics, Beaverton OR
Lines: 49

In article <376@hubcap.UUCP>, beede@hubcap.UUCP (Mike Beede) writes:
> in article <243@etn-rad.UUCP>, jru@etn-rad.UUCP (John Unekis) says:
> ] 
> ] What if the the real advantage of sexual versus asexual reproduction
> ] was that it allowed the genes of the species to contain some kind of
> ] checkpoint sequence. The mechanism would essentially function to check
> ] how often gene sequences were 'seen together'. In a large population,
> ] one would expect that in-breeding would be kept to a minimum, and the
> ] mechanism would remain dormant. If external pressures began to reduce
> ] the population, the checkpoint sequences would begin to recognize each 
> ] other more often, and would trigger changes to the genetic sequence when
> ] they did. Most of these changes would be self-destructive, but some might
> ] produce succesful adaptations for dealing with the forces which were
> ] threatening the population.
> ] 
> 
> ...a great idea -- stranger things exist.  What does evolutionary theory
> suggest about it?  How 'bout it all you biology dudes?
> -- 
> Mike Beede                      

  A couple of heuristics applicable to ideas like this one: 1) Does it imply
or require design?  If it does, then it isn't a very good candidate. 2) Does
it "buy" the gene, organism, or species anything?  If it doesn't help one of
these directly (and species can reduce to organism which ulimately reduces to
gene), it probably isn't a good idea either.
  From what I can see, this idea passes both of these heuristics.  There are
known genetic conditions that only express themselves when other specific
genes are present (such as six-fingeredness, which is dominant (!) but only,
I believe, under certain circumstances), or absent (such as hemophilia).  
Such a check-function as described above is quite an interesting idea, though
like many in evolutionary thought, probably not easily testable.  


[WARNING: bizarre idea surfacing... serious readers hit 'n' while you can!]

WHAT IF... life here *was* seeded from elsewhere (Slaver carbon-based food
yeasts gone awry, ala Niven?) but within each simple proto-viral RNA/DNA
complex, a little piece of the genetics that would make a sentient race was
placed (aaagh -- by design, of course).  Over the course of maaany years,
these pieces recognized each other (by having receptor sites for compatible
proteins made by others of these genetic pieces), and grouped themselves
together using a recognize-and-build variant of the check function mentioned
above.  Could all other terrestrial life forms then simply be supports and
buttresses leading to the pinnacle that is humanity?  Or, more interestingly,
could we simply be the platform from which the *truly* sentient being (the
one intended all along) will spring?  Hmmm.

Okay, okay, back to sci.bio.