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Angels, Aliens, and Archetypes

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Magnus
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25 Feb 2009, 10:38 am

It seems more likely that what caused humans to have giant brains is due to mutations.
I think that is the missing link.



Sand
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25 Feb 2009, 10:46 am

Magnus wrote:
It seems more likely that what caused humans to have giant brains is due to mutations.
I think that is the missing link.


You seem to have missed my point. I was not denying that mutations are what drives evolution, merely that almost all mutations are catastrophes. The very tiny number that are not are what makes everything from dinosaurs to bats to anti-biotic resisting bacteria. A lot of living creatures must die or be born horribly distorted to produce one tiny effective change.



Dussel
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25 Feb 2009, 10:58 am

Sand wrote:
Magnus wrote:
It seems more likely that what caused humans to have giant brains is due to mutations.
I think that is the missing link.


You seem to have missed my point. I was not denying that mutations are what drives evolution, merely that almost all mutations are catastrophes.


And there is the group of "neutral" mutation which show their benefits only special situations. A current example is the mutation on the surface of the CD4-cells mostly with northern Europeans which provides a relative immunity from HIV.



ruveyn
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25 Feb 2009, 12:44 pm

Dussel wrote:
Sand wrote:
Magnus wrote:
It seems more likely that what caused humans to have giant brains is due to mutations.
I think that is the missing link.


You seem to have missed my point. I was not denying that mutations are what drives evolution, merely that almost all mutations are catastrophes.


And there is the group of "neutral" mutation which show their benefits only special situations. A current example is the mutation on the surface of the CD4-cells mostly with northern Europeans which provides a relative immunity from HIV.


Sickle cell anemia is another. It is caused by a mutation, which in parts of Africa gives protection against malaria borne by the mosquito. Although lethal in its homozygous form, it is beneficial in its heterozygous form. Outside of malarial regions it is not beneficial in either form.

ruveyn



Magnus
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25 Feb 2009, 12:54 pm

Giraffes are another example of mutations helping a species. Only later does selection helps to refine evolution, right?

It seems too coincidental to have random mutations enable a species to survive.
I think it's possible for an animal to transform within one lifetime. There is no proof for this, but I think it's possible to manipulate our own dna through the will of the mind.



Sand
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25 Feb 2009, 1:03 pm

Magnus wrote:
Giraffes are another example of mutations helping a species. Only later does selection helps to refine evolution, right?

It seems too coincidental to have random mutations enable a species to survive.
I think it's possible for an animal to transform within one lifetime. There is no proof for this, but I think it's possible to manipulate our own dna through the will of the mind.


It is not enough to believe you can do something. You must do it. If you think something is possible you must actually do it to be convincing. So far, no experiments have confirmed your conjectures. Lysenko under Stalin in the USSR tried to get Lamarck's theories accepted but they merely caused trouble. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inheritanc ... characters



Magnus
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25 Feb 2009, 1:31 pm

I'll check out that link later when I have time to really read it.

Willful manipulation of DNA is something I thought up while I was thinking about evolution. Although I realize that randomness plays a role, I just don't buy that coincidences are behind life on earth. Later while I was doing research I came across Dan Winter. He wrote some interesting stuff about this.

Quote:
Winter claims specifically that recent new physics for how coherent EKG
changes DNA (coherent emotion / love?)- and how BLISS and ECSTASY are
measured using GOLDEN RATIO in brainwaves - actually confirm his theory
about the GRAIL (and gravity making) in blood.


You can look him up. Apparently he has stirred up some trouble and the government got suspicious of him. Check out why they arrested him. Since he brought negative attention to himself, I can't help but think that he is on to something.

Quote:
. Dan Winter was convicted by several courts in the USA, including the US Federal Court and the US Bankruptcy Court of North Carolina, for representing as his own work the work of various scholars, among others the research of Stan Tenen on the Hebrew alphabet, which constitutes an act of plagiarism, and in addition for adulterating the contents [of the other scholars' work]. Moreover, Winter published under his own name and sold for profit the works of these scholars in the form of books, CD-Roms and videos. The court therefore sentenced him after a number of trials to pay more than $100,000 compensation


He was convicted for teaching the works of other scholars such as the Hebrew alphabet?! !
That is absurd. He even cited the references.