Tim Tyler  wrote:-
Guy Hoelzer  wrote or quoted:

> > >>> If a biologically-based entropic maximand is
proposed, I therefore
> > >>> think that it can't simply stress short term
measurements of entropy
> > >>> increase - instead, it must consider long-term effects.
[snip]
> > >>> This is directly analogous to the situation with
maximising genetic
> > >>> descendants:
> > >>> Genes should be expected to maximise the number of
their long-term
> > >>> descendants - rather than the number of their
immediate offspring.

> > >> And this is something that, IMHO, they do.  Do you agree? [...]

> > > Yes.
> > > Caveat 1: they might find local (not global) maxima;
> > > Caveat 2: they might fail to ascend these maxima - due to
> > > mutation load;
> > > Note 1: maximising the number of long-term descendants is often rather
> > > a lot like maximising the number of their immediate offspring
> > > - especially
> > > in one common case - where there's no parental care.
> > > [...]

> > Clearly, NS is a process that reaches over long time spans
> > relative to our
> > generation time.  I think you implied that thermodynamics does
> > not do this,
> > so that this was a feature that distinguishes NS from
> > thermodynamics. [...]

> What I was trying to say was the exact opposite of that.
> When I talked about thermodynamics - and then said:
> ``This is directly analogous to the situation with maximising genetic
>   descendants''
> I was trying to say that the desirability of adopting a long term
> perspective was something that genetics and thermodynamics /shared/.

JE:-
Without finite totals to compare, so called "long term"
remains a pointless hand waving exercise. My understanding
is that the universe contains a finite total amount of
negative entropy (-e) created by the big bang.
As the universe expands this costs +e to pay for
the expansion of the universe. Life has no _total_ impact
on the amount of -e because the surrounding universe
pays +e exactly equal to life's -e. Thus life always exactly
balances +e with -e making absolutely no difference
to the total -e contained in the universe. Increasing
+e is a physics maximand. When the universe runs out
of -e it must contract.  Life has a
_different_ maximand to that of the universe but cannot
contradict such a basic physics maximand. As long as -e
created by each living system is exactly paid for with +e
in that local area of the universe a Darwinian
maximand, which is  NOT just a hand waving "long term"
measure but a testable to refutation and EXACT measure
of a TOTAL fitness remains free to work causing the evolution
of life forms on this planet.

The Darwinian maximand is: the total number of fertile
forms reproduced into one population by each parent.
This maximand, because it provides a finite total
that can be measured within a natural population can
be tested to refutation meeting a minimal Popperian
standard of testability. So called gene centric
measures of "longer term" gene fitness maximands have
never been formulated into a self consistent theory
of nature that can be tested to refutation. As NAS
has stated, no gene centric maximand exists within
the science of biology. Neo Darwinians misuse gene
centric models on an ongoing basis to contest the
Darwinian maximand even when their models cannot
be tested to refutation. While model building is
an essential art, it CANNOT replace theory building.
Attempting such an act entirely destroys the biological
sciences.

__________________________________________________________
The Darwinian Maximand I have identified remains the
ONLY biological maximand that exists that can be tested
to refutation. This being the case, it cannot be replaced
with any gene centric hand waving models of itself that cannot
be tested to refutation. Such a maximand cannot be ignored within
any science of biology. Sadly, this is exactly what has been
happening within evolutionary theory over the last 50 years.
____________________________________________________________


Regards,

John Edser
Independent Researcher

PO Box 266
Church Pt
NSW 2105
Australia

edser{at}tpg.com.au
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