<sigh>, The real question is why I'm getting drawn into this.
Joe Potter wrote:
>> Rob,
>> (jp)
> > > As Niles Eldredege points out in "Reinventing Darwin" on page
<snip>
> > > genes --- why in the heck did the mixing of genes on a 50-50 basis
> arise???
>> [me:]
> > I suggest you read up on a computational search technique called
> > a "genetic algorithm". They are very simple and easy to program,
<snip>
> > `sexual' mixing of genes and see which way produces a healthy
> > population for a given `fitness function' faster.
>> Why would I do this??? I did not write that Dr. Eldredge claimed that
> meiosis was inferior to mitosis, as he did not claim this. I wrote that he
> asks why meiosis arose IF the game is for the genes to make as many copies
> of themselves as possible.
No, you asked, as quoted above, "why in the heck did the mixing of genes
on a
50-50 basis arise???" I attempted to give evidence from an informatics
perspective that mixing of genes is advantageous for survival of a
species
in a given environment, and hence "for the genes to make as many copies
of
themselves as possible." Indeed, perhaps this is not a completely
accurate
characterization of "the game".
In answer to your current question, "Why would I do this???", obviously
so that you might learn and expose yourself to new ideas and situations.
>> By the way, I'm sure you know this is a large controversy in the
> Ultra-Darwinist camp, why pretend it is not????
>
What you are sure of is not true. I have no knowledge nor interest in
"the Ultra-Darwinist camp" (is that run by the Parks Board ? :-), I am
interested in computational approaches to protein structure prediction.
rob.
--
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Robert T. Miller, Ph.D.
rmiller at house.med.und.ac.za
Manager - Durban Satellite - South African National Bioinformatics
Institute
Faculty of Medicine / Dept of Virology / University of Natal
Private Bag 7 / Congella 4013 / Durban / South Africa
phone +27 (031) 3603743 fax +27 (031) 3603744 or
2604441
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