Skepticism aside, evolution is steadily being verified and analyzed thanks to cutting edge computing
One of my favorite examples is an online lecture:
Making Genetic Networks Operate Robustly: Unintelligent Non-design Suffices, by Professor Garrett Odell.Description: Mathematical computer models of two ancient and famous genetic networks act early in embryos of many different species to determine the body plan. Models revealed these networks to be astonishingly robust, despite their 'unintelligent design.' This examines the use of mathematical models to shed light on how biological, pattern-forming gene networks operate and how thoughtless, haphazard, non-design produces networks whose robustness seems inspired, begging the question what else unintelligent non-design might be capable of.
“This examines the use of mathematical models to shed light on how biological, pattern-forming gene networks operate and how thoughtless, haphazard, non-design produces networks whose robustness seems inspired, begging the question what else unintelligent non-design might be capable of.”
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Fascinating stuff. Thanks. We need more “Unintelligent Non-Design” and a lot less Creationist B.S. around here.
I once posted a high school lab experiment that broke the class into two teams.
Their task was to build an airplane glider out of drinking staws and paper.
Team one had raw materials, whole drinking straws and sheets of paper. They were required to come up with a theoretical design brfore building their plane using aeronautical engineering sources.
Team two had dozens of wing sections and tail sections and straws cut two different lengths. These were numbered and were selected randomly by lot. Their planes were then test flown and losing components were rejected.
Over and over again, the randomly selected airplane evolves to look like the designed plane.
The reason for this is, of course, that the function of stable flight selects the components. Form followed function as they say.
Isn’t Carl Woese a participant in one of those controversies in biology that can’t happen because everyone in science bows to the supreme authority? Or is that my imagination?