Darwinian and Lamarckian evolution as two extremes on a spectrum

in #evolution3 years ago

Darwinian model of evolution is the most extreme version of "uncontrolled evolution", and any evolved mechanisms for control, shifts evolution towards Lamarckian evolution. Consider bacteria in Darwinian model of evolution. They occasionally mutate, from random errors or damage from radiation etc, and some strains develop advantageous mutations. Now consider that bacteria when under stress had the ability to trigger similar processes, possibly in controlled compartments, where they could randomly mutate genetic sequences. This added nuance to Darwinian selection, being able to decide to increase mutation rate, is a slight movement towards Lamarckian model of evolution. Now consider even more sophistication of such a mechanism, where the ability to test new "ideas", new genetic sequences coding for new proteins, works much like how us humans can test new ideas, discard them if we do not like them, and keep them if we want. At that point, you have true Lamarckian evolution, but it is still essentially the same thing as the Darwin model except the natural selection just increases in resolution. The Darwinian extreme of the spectrum of "control" of processes in evolution, is in some ways a "safe" bet because it could be seen as making the least assumptions, but, in doing so, it is also making an assumption in itself. Disbelief is actually just another form of belief, and for each possibility Lamarckianism has, Darwinianism has to make an equal "disbelief" assumption against it.

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Thank you for your thought. It looks like you are a big scientist like figure I guess. Happy today.

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