[lasereye]

I understand the theory of natural selection. What I thought you were saying was that the mutations themselves are not random in nature but that somehow the beneficial ones are more likely to occur.

[gomaaa]

Ahh. Yeah, the mutation generation process is random. The selection process is not. I think we're on the same page now. Didn't mean to sound condescending there.

[edsheppa]

What I thought you were saying was that the mutations themselves are not random in nature but that somehow the beneficial ones are more likely to occur.

Interesting you should mention that. There is a newish idea about called quantum evolution. There is a book of that name by McFadden. One observation he mentioned was an experiment in which beneficial mutations did occur more frequently than expected.

My grasp of the idea gained from his book is that quantum behaviors in cells do lead beneficial mutations to happen more frequently that you'd expect based on classical calculations. The analogy that occurred to me was a sort of resonance-in-time, mutations can sort of "sense" their future effects.

I found the speculation interesting but it is a lot of hand-waving.