Does Common Descent Follow Logically From Darwin's Four Postulates?

Eugene Shubert said:
Given a string of n distinct characters, then the number of possible transpositions is exactly n(n-1)/2.

For example, AB is a string of two distinct characters. So n=2. Put that in the formula and you get 2(2-1)/2 =1. That's right, isn't it?
There is only 1 possible transposition for the string AB, which is BA.

Again, ABC is a string of three distinct characters. So n=3. Put that in the formula and you get 3(3-1)/2 =3. I'm right again.

So from ABC there are only 3 possible transpositions:

BAC
ACB
CBA

Here's a homework assignment for you. Check my formula for 4 distinct characters by listing all the possible transpositions to ABCD. There should be 4(4-1)/2 = 6 of them.
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6

Yah

:)
 
Eugene Shubert said:
Toy models are just the playthings of mathematicians. Again, start with a string of n distinct characters and derive the formula for the number of possible inversions. Assign the same probability for each inversion. Do the math.
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Your toy models of evolutionary processes don't work. They conflict with research and observation. Change, or discard.
 
billvon said:
So you asked for a law. I posted a law.
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Yes, there are many silly laws, such as don't travel faster than light because it confuses passengers. Interestingly however, according to your presuppositions, as you interpret them, the prominent physicist George Gamow should have been imprisoned for denying the second law of thermodynamics in chapter 9 of MR TOMPKINS IN WONDERLAND.

And that reminds me of a hilarious prophecy about me by Douglas Adams:

“It startled him even more when just after he was awarded the Galactic Institute's Prize for Extreme Cleverness he got lynched by a rampaging mob of respectable physicists who had finally realized that the one thing they really couldn't stand was a smartass.”
 
Eugene Shubert said:
Yes, there are many silly laws, such as don't travel faster than light because it confuses passengers. Interestingly however, according to your presuppositions, as you interpret them, the prominent physicist George Gamow should have been imprisoned for denying the second law of thermodynamics in chapter 9 of MR TOMPKINS IN WONDERLAND.

And that reminds me of a hilarious prophecy about me by Douglas Adams:

“It startled him even more when just after he was awarded the Galactic Institute's Prize for Extreme Cleverness he got lynched by a rampaging mob of respectable physicists who had finally realized that the one thing they really couldn't stand was a smartass.”
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I thought it was god who was supposed to return from the dead

Not a smartass

:)
 
Eugene Shubert said:
Yes, there are many silly laws, such as don't travel faster than light because it confuses passengers. Interestingly however, according to your presuppositions, as you interpret them, the prominent physicist George Gamow should have been imprisoned for denying the second law of thermodynamics
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People playing silly games can do so in a page or two - 16 is too many. I'm sorry about my contribution, and I promise never to feed this troll again.
 
iceaura said:
People playing silly games can do so in a page or two - 16 is too many. I'm sorry about my contribution, and I promise never to feed this troll again.
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I call the game Ping Pong and your tolerance of 2 pages is well over my tolerance level of 3 Pings

:)
 
What about DNA? There is more than one kind, and yet we only see one kind in all life forms on Earth, evidence of a common ancestor that happened on one form accidentally and passed it on.
 
billvon said:
So the laws of thermodynamics are "silly"
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More precisely, the second law of thermodynamics is very much like the speed limit on freeways, which was devised, in part, with optimal safety in mind. Some cars move faster than the posted limit and some cars move slower. On the average however, the majority of cars obey the central limit theorem. One thing is certain though, the central limit theorem has no power over nonconformists.
 
Eugene Shubert said:
One thing is certain however, the central limit theorem has no power over nonconformists.
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It would be interesting to see you try to apply your "nonconformism" to, say, designing a power plant. You could begin the process all cocky, proud of your refusal to bow to the religion of thermodynamics. You could claim that with your genius and out of the box thinking, you could avoid the traps of the efficiency limits imposed by thermodyamics. It would then be fun to watch reality hit you - very hard - in the face. And you'd be left standing there wondering what the hell just happened, while real engineers and scientists fix your lousy design.
 
iceaura said:
People playing silly games can do so in a page or two - 16 is too many. I'm sorry about my contribution, and I promise never to feed this troll again.
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Very wise in my view.

But one thing has come up that intrigues me, apropos some of the things that are attributed to Gamow. This is the idea, which I have encountered in several places, in (usually) school-level descriptions of the kinetic theory of matter, that there is no reason - in principle at least - why all the molecules in an object should not suddenly move in the same direction at once, causing the object to leap into the air or something. According to these descriptions, it is just a matter of the infinitesimal probability of this that causes us not to see it ever happening in real life.

I have always thought this was utter ballocks, because, as molecules exchange momentum during their random collisions and momentum is conserved, there is no way whatsoever for such an event to take place. If the total net momentum of all the component parts is zero at the start it must be still zero at any time thereafter.

I wonder if this is among our poster's numerous misapprehensions. But not having Gamow's book am unable to see for myself what he actually said about all this.
 
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