Why does the evolutionary process exist?

Theoryofrelativity (ToR), I was halfway through responding in the original thread this was in and noted that you had set this up in response to my original post... so here goes with some answers from a self-professed non-expert.

ToR said:
How did the first life forms to appear, do so with an ability to replicate themselves?
No idea. But isn't one requirement for "life" the ability to replicate. Therefore first-life only exists when the entity demonstrates the ability to replicate? Thus life, by definition, had this at the start.

ToR said:
Or did they not, did first life just die and then new life would keep springing up from 'nothing' (nothing being the 'soup')
No idea.
As we have not yet been able to create "life" from nothing, it is difficult to say.
However, it is entirely possible that a number of potential first-lifes arose but quickly died out - part of evolution - as they could not replicate.

ToR said:
With out replication how did the evolutionary process occur?
The biological evolutionary process requires reproduction / replication. Thus evolution begins when replication begins - not before.
It is non-sensical to talk about biological evolution without the assumption of replication / reproduction.

ToR said:
How was the information about genetically unconnected life forms 'shared' to ensure the improved adaptability/survival of the next?
Not sure I follow? All life forms are genetically connected. We all have DNA that has replication as part of the instruction-set.
Please can you clarify this question?

ToR said:
WHY WAS adaptability and survival important, why did the evolutionary process NEED to occur at all?
The biological evolutionary process only kicks in when there IS replication.
As stated, the adaptability and survivability is what we DEFINE as evolution - not what drives it.
The evolutionary process did not need to happen....

Tor said:
Why didn't life from the soup just arise and die, arise and die, arise and die? Why and HOW did it desire to survive and mechanisms evolve accordingly?
No idea. New first-life could possibly be arising every moment, but because it does not have the ability to adapt and change it dies very quickly.
It is only because one "first-life" DID have the ability to initially survive, and then manage to adapt to some changes, that we are here.

Also, there was no "desire" to survive - it just did.
It just went through the natural biological evolutionary process.
It had no choice about it - just like every other living creature has no choice about it.



ToR said:
How did we ever get from living without replication to living with the ability to replicate?
Again, isn't one of the common requirements of "life" the ability to replicate/reproduce etc. Without it there is no life.

I have no idea how life began.


ToR said:
Why haven't we observed life springing up from'nothing yet?
(nothing being the 'soup' of course)
It might be happening all the time - and we have missed it before that life dies.
Also - we humans have only had the ability to look for such things within the last 100 years or so - hardly enough time in the grand scheme.

ToR said:
How did the first life form appear with the ability to pass knowedge of it's envirnment' to it's progeny?
It probably self-replicated / cloned itself. Thus, if the original can survive the environment, so can the clone.
It is probably through gradual mutations of these clones that differences from the original arose.
Some of these differences would have died out - as they may have caused the life to be unable to survive the environment.
Other differences would have survived as they did not effect the ability to survive.
Then, when there was a change in the environment, those without the ability to survive in this new environment would die out.
If the creature spread to two differing environments (such as on the border between water and land) then two branches of the life might have developed.
And so it would go on.


ToR said:
As evolution is a process that takes a VERY long time , how did the first life forms survive in the absense of the features required for its survival?
They wouldn't have - but obviously it had the necessary features for its survival - as it did survive.
 
Theoryofrelativity said:
How did the first life forms to appear, do so with an ability to replicate themselves?
Life per definition replicates. Otherwise it is not life, oh mighty IQ of 155.

Theoryofrelativity said:
Or did they not, did first life just die and then new life would keep springing up from 'nothing' (nothing being the 'soup')
You clearly cannot substitute an IQ of 155 for actual reading up on a subject.
Theoryofrelativity said:
With out replication how did the evolutionary process occur?
Clearly the IQ of 155 prevents you from seeing the trees in the forest. There is no evolution without replication. Indeed by asking the wrong question you can make your own points valid. The intrisinc value of your own points however will appraoch zero.
Theoryofrelativity said:
How was the information about genetically unconnected life forms 'shared' to ensure the improved adaptability/survival of the next?
It wasn't. Otherwise they would be connected. You cannot subsitite an IQ of 155 for actually reading up on a topic. We are not in ancient greece anymore.
Theoryofrelativity said:
WHY WAS adaptability and survival important, why did the evolutionary process NEED to occur at all? Why didn't life from the soup just arise and die, arise and die, arise and die? Why and HOW did it desire to survive and mechanisms evolve accordingly?
Once again a collection of silly questions. There is no desire in evolution. Evolution is a process.


Theoryofrelativity said:
How did we ever get from living without replication to living with the ability to replicate?
We never did. False questions cannot be answered oh might IQ of 155.


Theoryofrelativity said:
Why haven't we observed life springing up from'nothing yet?
(nothing being the 'soup' of course)
Because there is efficient life everywhere.

Theoryofrelativity said:
How did the first life form appear with the ability to pass knowedge of it's envirnment' to it's progeny?
Who knows? It doesn't diminish the value of evolution.

Theoryofrelativity said:
As evolution is a process that takes a VERY long time , how did the first life forms survive in the absense of the features required for its survival?
Once again it seems that an IQ of 155 is not a substitute for actual reading up on a topic. Evolution occurs with every replication round. The overall direction in a population during each replication round can be zero. However, in the beginning there was so much room for improvement that it can easily be imagined that the first evolution was fast untill more stable forms appeared.

Theoryofrelativity said:
I will start new thread as I am interested to learn the answers to these simple questions.
Don't bother. Just read http://www.talkorigins.org/ first.

You fail utterly in basic knowledge. Maybe it is a smart move (one that even an IQ of 155 should be able to see) to first read up on the basics before criticising a well established theory.

Otherwise this is nothing more than an exercise in silliness.
 
Sarkus said:
No idea. But isn't one requirement for "life" the ability to replicate. Therefore first-life only exists when the entity demonstrates the ability to replicate? Thus life, by definition, had this at the start.

.


Who decided that requirement?

First life was a random thing, sprang from the soup, how did this requirement to replicate thus simultaneously arise as part of that random event?

How and why did the evolutionary process begin? I know how it works, I am not asking how I am asking why? Why did 'fit' organsims pass this knowledge to their progeny, oh I forget they just did. It is purely accidental that life is randomly designed to survive.

You can't answer a question about the origin of evolution with 'it is part of evolution'


Replication takes into consideration the need to adapt, thus evolution is at work when replication is at work. So again you cannot answer the question as to why do we need to replicate with 'that is the definition of life' it is NOT an answer, you cannot answer the question 'how did evolution begin' with it's part of replication, because the whole buisness of being alive and remaining so is dependant upon the abilty to remain alive. Organisms that arose without these BUILT in abilities would die and there is NO reason at all why anything better would airse to accomodate the inadequacies fo the first. Unless you are implying LIFE wants to LIVE? WHY does LIFE want to live?

Why not live,die, live,die, live die.

WHEN did life decide it wanted to live?

Sarkus said:
Not sure I follow? All life forms are genetically connected. We all have DNA that has replication as part of the instruction-set.
Please can you clarify this question?

.


The first life forms were not genetically connected unless the first life forms arose with the ability to replicate. IF the VERY first living this arose with the ability to replicate, HOW and WHY? Meanwhile I am NOT saying they did appear without ability to replicate. I am just trying to get you to ask yourself WHY, bearing in mind it was a random event....rather complex set of inbuilt mechanisms for a random event?

It is important you see beyond the limitations of answering a question with the following:

I ask you: why does a televison work and you say: "they always have, this is just the way it is. The first televiosn worked and so now they all do. There is nor eason for it, it just does, they just do. all televisons work this way, this is what defines a television.
 
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I think what she means is 'what drove the process of life persisting for any meaningful time such as a day, a week, a year, a century etc etc.....' instread of just giving in to perpetual 1 minute extinction for example.
 
imaplanck. said:
I think what she means is 'what drove the process of life persisting for any meaningful time such as a day, a week, a year, a century etc etc.....' instread of just giving in to perpetual 1 minute extinction for example.


My answer would be it was a random event made inevitable by the numbers game. Like all of the evolution process there was no intent or design, just the random success (if you like).
 
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Nickelodeon said:
What do you mean "decide"??? If life didnt live, it wouldnt be life.


Life replicates itself, fit specimens pass their 'fit' traits to their progeny while the weaker traits are diminished, thus an even fitter creature 'evolves'.

The question is not how this process works but why..who cares?

how is it that the genes were so cleverly engineered (in absence of an engineer) to permit the prevailing fit genes to survive and the weak ones to dimish? Why didn't the accident that was life just not know the difference between good and bad genes?
 
imaplanck. said:
I think what she means is 'what drove the process of life persisting for any meaningful time such as a day, a week, a year, a century etc etc.....' instread of just giving in to perpetual 1 minute extinction for example.

ah an intelligent contributor, thank you. I have trouble expressing exactly what is on my mind as the absence of my knowledge does indeed hinder progress, but it is nice to know despite that, that the point I try to make is still observable.
 
imaplanck. said:
My answer would be it was a random event made inevitable by the numbers game. Like all of the evolution process there was no intent or design, just the random success (if you like).

Evolutionary process may appear random, but the fact remains that this process was in place at the beginning of life, and this is the part I am asking about! Life CAME from the very FIRST step designed with a mechansim that enabled it to survive.
 
Theoryofrelativity said:
Life replicates itself, fit specimens pass their 'fit' traits to their progeny while the weaker traits are diminished, thus an even fitter creature 'evolves'.

The question is not how this process works but why..who cares?

how is it that the genes were so cleverly engineered (in absence of an engineer) to permit the prevailing fit genes to survive and the weak ones to dimish? Why didn't the accident that was life just not know the difference between good and bad genes?

Bearing in mind there is more than one of a species. Those with usefull traits will more likely survive than those without usefull traits. Those with useful traits pass it on to thier offsrping. Those without useful traits don't, because they are dead.
 
Nickelodeon said:
Bearing in mind there is more than one of a species. Those with usefull traits will more likely survive than those without usefull traits. Those with useful traits pass it on to thier offsrping. Those without useful traits don't, because they are dead.

I said this already

the question is not that, the question is regarding the alleged intelligence you are affording these genes? Are genes intelligent? If so why?

why did first randon life appear from nothing with intelligent genes...with INTELLIGENCE?
 
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