Ann Gauger: Did the Human Brain Evolve?

[T_aquaticus]

@r_speir

I think the brain would be the driver of mutations and mutation selection.

If a couple wants to have children with blue eyes, would their wants drive the mutations for blue eyes? How would that work? What are the mechanisms?

This also leads to some uncomfortable conclusions. Children are born with de novo mutations that cause severe diseases. Did that child’s parents use their brains to cause that mutation?

It is also worth noting that women are born with all of the eggs they will ever produce. Eggs form before there is a fully formed brain. How do you account for that?

You would also need to explain the pattern of substitution mutations, as I discuss in this thread:

Mutations Are Consistent With Biochemistry

In a previous thread I discussed what science meant by random mutations and how this term is defined by experimental results and statistics. A lot of this work was done in the 1940’s and 50’s, and since then many new facts have been discovered in the field of genetics, such as the discovery of DNA. This gave rise to the field of molecular biology and allowed us to understand biology at the molecular scale. So what exactly causes mutations? We once again have to reiterate the the limited scope of science. What science can do is put forward hypotheses and see if the evidence is consistent with that hypothesis. What science can not do is make ontological statements about absolute truth. With that in mind, the next few posts will discuss the evidence that links mutagenesis (the production of mutations) with the biochemistry of the cell and why scientists aren’t simply assuming that mutations are caused by biochemistry.

@r_speir

That mutations are deleterious or neutral for the most part may only indicate lapses in neural function or limitations in energy supply.

One has to wonder how bacteria get mutations.