On Sat, Jan 24, 2015 at 09:00:13AM +1100, Kim Jones wrote: > > > On 24 Jan 2015, at 8:15 am, John Clark <[email protected]> wrote: > > >> On Fri, Jan 23, 2015 at 3:37 PM, Russell Standish <[email protected]> > >> wrote: > >> > >> > Evolution will favour whichever strategy is better in the long run > > > > That is incorrect. Evolution will favor whichever strategy is better in > > the SHORT run. That's why Evolution is such a dreadful designer and was > > never able to come up with something as simple and obviously useful as a > > macroscopic body part that could move in 360 degrees. > > > > And that is why the eye of all vertebrate animals is backwards, the nerves > > and capillaries of the retina are on the wrong side so light must pass > > through it before it hits the light sensitive cells. There's no doubt th > > ...blah blah blah......etc. > > I think everyone on this list would probably have under stood Russell's "in the long run" to mean pretty much "in the short run" given the timescale that evolution works to, but far be it from you to pass up on the opportunity to sieze on a word or phrase and then to act like a theocrat who is confronted by a heretic.
Well I was referring to long run as being multigenerational timescales. To me short run means within my lifetime. Evolution simply does not act on such short timescales. But, to be fair, John may have had a deep time perspective in mind, say millions of years, instead of the centuries I had in mind. Cheers -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) Principal, High Performance Coders Visiting Professor of Mathematics [email protected] University of New South Wales http://www.hpcoders.com.au Latest project: The Amoeba's Secret (http://www.hpcoders.com.au/AmoebasSecret.html) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
