[bondserv]

Noise in the signal is irrelevant. The system disgards bad copies.

You only say that because you have all of your fingers and toes.

[js1138]

You only say that because you have all of your fingers and toes.

No, I got my masters in Special Ed. I've met lots of folks with missing thumbs, hands, arms, or defective intelligence. It's sad, but over the long haul, those defects caused by genes rather than environmental factors, are discarded. There are bad recessive genes that maintain a relatively low level in the gene pool, but they cannot ever reach a high level because they interfere with survival and reproduction.

There are also defects like sickle-cell trait that have some selective advantage in tropical climates.

But genes do not degrade over time. Reproduction is digital, with layers and layers of protection against degradation.

But, of course, no protection against change that is neutral or advantageous to reproduction.

[js1138]

The issue here (degradation) is best illustrated by examining what happens in the growth of an individual vs what happens in reproduction. The cells that produce out adult bodies divide pretty much a fixed number of times. There are chromosome errors occurring at during these divisions that eventually lead to cellular death. Enough cells dying and the body dies.

Reproduction, viewed as a digital copying system, handles this differently. First, the copying process itself is less error prone. Second, far more copies are made than needed to reproduce the individual. Third, non-viable copies are discarded by the system. Fourth, defective copies capable of surviving and reproducing, do so.