David is absolutely right. There is no design, Jacob, we just instinctively look for it everywhere because seeking purpose instead of understanding mechanism conveys advantage to our species. Your rationale is flawed - just because it is imaginable (with caveats) does not mean that it must exist on this particular planet. Complementary, not every feature observed has functional significance (in part because biomacromolecules are structurally redundant).
On Wed, 2010-09-08 at 09:04 -0400, David Schuller wrote: > > Ah, so many possibilities! And as I said before, considering that > > it would be so useful, and that the genius of macromolecular design > observed > > in nature is apparently so unlimited, shouldn't it be out there > somewhere? > "Design"? I think there are more appropriate descriptions for life as > it > has been observed. The complexity of life can be explained fairly > well > by Darwinian evolution, i.e. replication with variation coupled with > selection. This works through modification of existing entities. The > relatedness of many molecules and the theme of modification of > pre-existing parts ought to be apparent to someone who has learned > about > replication and sources of genetic novelty, and spent any time > studying > protein structure. > >
