Garte: The Meaning of "Random" Mutation

[Mercer (John Mercer)]

@sygarte

That does seem like a good analogy, but it actually misses the point, I believe. Because the bets are not random, meaning people who place bets are not equally likely to bet on a 2 and a 7, They know the odds, and will bet on 7 whenever possible (and they do).

The analogy holds up beautifully. If I have to bet on a particular type of mutation, I’ll bet on a transition, the most common type.

@sygarte

As for mutations, there actually are some connections between what the organism needs, and the mutations that do happen.

That’s tantalizingly vague. Care to elaborate?

@sygarte

Josh on another thread agreed that “All these mutational mechanism are biased towards changes that are more likely to increase fitness.”

But if we use “bias” in that sense, all mechanisms are biased toward neutral changes, neither good nor bad.