Message-Id: <339D9AF2.1AA3@rug.ac.be>
Date: Tue, 10 Jun 1997 11:20:35 -0700
From: Mario Vaneechoutte <Mario.Vaneechoutte@rug.ac.be>
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Subject: Replicators: why encoding
Hans-Cees Speel wrote:
>
> What I do like is your arguments on why code is so important. This is
> a very valid and important theme in any evolutionary theory
> involving code: WHY IS CODE NEEDED, or stated differently: WHY IS
> THERE NO EVOLUTION WITHOUT CODE? Or WHY DID REPLICATORS WITH MORE
> ELABORATED CODE SURVIVE?
This is a great way of questioning (by formulating the question in all
different manners). The manner you asks questions already determines
whether you will be able to get answers from nature (someone said this
in a better way, but I don't carry a library inside my head, like
Timothy Perper).
The third question is the right way to ask. Answering the questions
shows why.
Question 1: nothing is ever needed
Question 2: there was and is evolution without encoding (there was
biological evolution without encoding and there is cultural evolution
without encoding, think of bird songs or behaviours)
Question 3: indeed, most probably the cellular replicators which could
use code quickly outcompeted their predecessors. It is well comparable
to what we are doing. These last few hundreds of years certainly will be
recorded in geological history as a period of mass extinctions.
-- Mario Vaneechoutte Laboratory Bacteriology & Virology Blok A, De Pintelaan 185 University Hospital Ghent Belgium 9000 Ghent Tel: +32 9 240 36 92 Fax: +32 9 240 36 59 E-mail: Mario.Vaneechoutte@rug.ac.be Editor J. Memetics: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit =============================================================== This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing) see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit