Bingo. My mutation is my mutation. It exists in me, Chris the fruit fly, or rather in my genetic material. It does not exist in other fruit flies unless they are descended from me. If I die before reproducing, the new mutation will no longer exist. It will not spontaneously appear in other fruit flies out of some kind of law of conservation of mutation.
Why is there resistence to this obvious fact? It's weird. (I actually think I know why -- people are taking the obviously true notion that the individual is part of a whole way, way too far, to the absurd point where the individual doesn't matter at all and novelty arising on the level of the individual is impossible.)
--- On Fri, 5/15/09, ravi <ravi at platosbeard.org> wrote:
> From: ravi <ravi at platosbeard.org>
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] the epigenenome
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Date: Friday, May 15, 2009, 11:18 AM
> On May 15, 2009, at 11:11 AM, Miles
> Jackson wrote:
> > Chris Doss wrote:
> >> A gene that is located in an individual, as part
> of his or her body. If the individual does not reproduce,
> the gene is lost.
> > No, not quite right. If I have no children, and
> I aid in the survival and reproduction of genetically
> related individuals, my genes are not "lost". They
> will show up in the next generation.
> >
>
>
> I believe we are talking about mutations. A mutation of a
> gene occurs in an individual. If that individual does not
> reproduce -- which is in fact the majority case, since most
> mutations are regressive and decrease the reproductive
> success of the carrier -- that mutation is lost. Now, its
> possible that the same mutation simultaneously occurs in
> multiple individuals -- perhaps because their parents were
> exposed to the same environmental effects -- but that has no
> relationship to kin, etc. So, you are right that you share
> your genes with your kin and they survive even if you don't
> reproduce. But mutations that are specific to you do not
> survive unless you reproduce.
>
> --ravi
>
>
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