# Comments on Gpuccio: Functional Information Methodology

**URL:** <https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/comments-on-gpuccio-functional-information-methodology/7560>\
**Category:** Side Conversation\
**Tags:** Comments\
**Created:** [August 26, 2019, 3:59pm UTC](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/comments-on-gpuccio-functional-information-methodology/7560 "2019-08-26T15:59:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 343

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**Author:** ![Rumraket](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.peacefulscience.org/rumraket/32/9328_2.png) [@Rumraket](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/u/Rumraket)\
**Post date:** [August 31, 2019, 8:20am UTC](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/comments-on-gpuccio-functional-information-methodology/7560/343 "2019-08-31T08:20:57Z")

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> [@Gpuccio: Functional Information Methodology](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/gpuccio-functional-information-methodology/7549/180):
>
> Wow, you guys in the anti-ID field seem to be really fond of this error.
> 
> Let’s state things clearly:
> 
> **10 objects with 50 bits of FI each are not, in any way, 500 bits of FI.**
> 
> Which is what Rumracket (and maybe you) seems to believe when he says:

No, that’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying why can’t the accumulation in the same protein continue? There’s an antibody, it has some sequence. It mutates in the hypervariable region in a stretch of 6-10 amino acids, and over the course of a few weeks 50 FI (or whatever) is generated. Why could a larger portion of the antibody not continue mutating?

Why could the same thing not happen to 200 residues, out of a 600 amino acid protein over the course of 500 million years? In fact, isn’t this exactly what phylogenetics reveals to us has happened? We create a large tree of homologous proteins, and we see that along some lineages lots of mutations have accumulated in the protein during this time period?

Natural selection fixed the mutations in the antibody. Why can’t natural selection have fixed the mutations in the larger protein?

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