Whoa! Whoa! dhw take notice!!! (The limitations of science)

by David Turell , Saturday, April 19, 2014, 03:35 (3652 days ago) @ xeno6696


> Matt:My perspective when I wrote that was this: Without the filter... there is no observable change. No observable change means stasis. Before we can start explaining differences--the differences have to be manifest!-But that is an necessarily active part. Epigenetic changes, mutation, genetic drift, all active processes produce variety. Then natural selection, up to that point passive, comes into action to produce choices. -> Matt: I think a basic analogy works: Picture a bowling ball at the top of a ramp. Without an initial force or bump... there's nothing to make the ball roll down the hill. 
> 
> Imagine a device that sits under the ball and keeps increasing elevation. That's your genetic changes collecting. WIthout an initial force to knock it down the ramp, the system is simply gaining potential energy... but its never going to use any of it without a nudge. In this analogy, the nudge is natural selection.-Your analogy doesn't work. It is simply exactly parallel to my description. The devise is actively raising the ball (making varieties) and the nudge is natural selection, having been presented variety while it sits passively by, now can act on the varieties and become active. It is a two step process. Natural selection never creats variety.