Guy Hoelzer  wrote in
news:blkvso$bcp$1{at}darwin.ediacara.org: 

> in article blig3b$2o1s$1{at}darwin.ediacara.org, Tim Tyler at
> tim{at}tt1lock.org wrote on 10/2/03 5:32 PM:
> 
>> Guy Hoelzer  wrote or quoted:
>>> in article bldir5$1fff$1{at}darwin.ediacara.org, Tim Tyler at
>>> tim{at}tt1lock.org 
>> 
>>>> "Replication" has an advantage over
"reproduction" there - since
>>>> the former denotes hi-fi information transfer (of the type
>>>> necessary to life) - while the latter does not.
>>> 
>>> This is quite a claim.  Can you please explain why you think that
>>> the type of hi-fi information transfer exhibited by genes is
>>> NECESSARY for life? 

>> Living systems can't sustain losing the genetic know-how they
>> have about staying alive for very long - eventually they wind up
>> suffering from an error catastrophe - and wind up too ignorant
>> to live.

 
>> *Maybe* one day, the rate of knowledge acquisition in a single
>> generation will grow so that it is substantial - relative to
>> existing inherited knowledge.  If that ever happens, then
>> I'd be happy to concede that transmitting "old" inherited
>> information between generations could grow less important.

> Your statements are thought-provoking, and I don't disagree.  I
> definitely do agree that complex adaptive systems, such as living
> ones, must have momentum (historical memory).  However, this doesn't
> seem to address my point, which is that hi-fi replication of genes is
> not a necessary condition for life, or natural selection.  Lower
> fidelity reproduction should be sufficient.

I would think that high fidelity is not necessary for life. However, 
high-fidelity information transfer will rapidly replace lower fidelity 
information transfer for exactly the reasons Tim lists.(The analogy is 
not exact, but look at how quickly CD's replaced vinyl, whereas cassettes 
never did because while much more convenient they were not higher 
fidelity) So it might be more accurate to say that hi-fi transfer is a 
necessary result of life rather than necessary to life.

Yours,

Bill Morse
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