Message from @Sophie
Discord ID: 685502475620581427
@Sophie Selective pressure does weed out less fit creatures, although the animals it doesn’t weed out would have to have super power genetics every single time in order to reach the place we are today
K.
So selective pressure makes sure that detrimentally disadvantageous mutations are removed from the gene pool
Well, the gene pool is a whole different thing
Howso?
Because the gene pool would need instructions to begin with
...what?
I have no idea what that’s supposed to mean
The gene pool is just all the genes that exist within a breeding population
Ah, ok. We were thinking of different things.
We’re assuming the genes already have the basic instructions of survival?
Right?
No?
(Which is already a big assumption)
Only genes that survive
It’s not an assumption, it’s necessarily the case
You are alive, therefore your genes have the instructions for survival
Whatever that means
Well then, how would selective pressure work if cells don’t even know they have to survive?
How?
What?
Why do they care?
They don’t
Exactly
Exactly what?
Cells aren’t generally self aware
We can debate whether your neurons are, but that’s a whole different discussion
So a cell has essentially programming
Just things it does and reactions to stimuli
They don’t even know that they have to survive. If you were to shoot an artificial machine, would it try to dodge the missile without being programmed to?
No
That’s why I thought we were starting with the assumption that the cells already know they have to survive
But if you shot a missile at 100,000,000 artificial machines, and one was programmed to
Then you’d only be left with machines that dodge missiles
Cells don’t “know” anything
Or if it accidentally dodged the missile
Because evolution doesn’t allow programming
Yes it does