RE: virus: 2+2 (Or, One cannot both Replicate and Reproduce)

Gifford, Nate F (giffon@SDCPOS3B.DAYTONOH.ncr.com)
Fri, 12 Sep 1997 08:40:37 -0400


Brett wrote a bunch of arithmetic identities whose significance I frankly
did not follow ending with:

And finally here is the difference between Darwinism and Complexity:
Darwinism says that the parts of the original are shared between the
parents
who destroy each other so that the parts can be reformed into an original
whole which is equal to the sum of it's parts (that 4 merely restates 1/is
the same thing and not a superior form)--and that "chance" determines
which
parts of this whole each parent can contribute--"REPRODUCTION".
Complexity
says that the entire original is taken in by the new offspring which
utilizes the processes of growth and development to reform the original in
such a was as to show a more complex relationship between the parts...a
relationship which better represents the original--"REPLICATION". And
again, why the hetero can't see this correlation--they haven't yet
internalized the original whole, or externalized their successor.

Which completely ignores the real biological process of ... meiosis or
mitosis I can't remeber which and my dictionary doesn't have entries for
either one .... The fact is Brett that the zygote is the result of the
melding of the gametes ... each of which carry half of the DNA from the
parent. That is the biological process of reproduction. I will concede
that there is a replication process that occurs post-partum. Confusing
replication with reproduction is to confuse cause and effect. Reproduction
is necessary but not sufficient for replication. In my mind what is left
when in replication when you remove reproduction is the essence from which
memetics is distilled.

As to your arithmetic identities .... I think you need to take more math.
If you take enough math then you begin to see numbers as a platonic ideal
space. You can prove "truths" about how that platonic space operates ...
and you can say reality can be modeled by those truths ... but it seems to
me what complexity theory proves is that reality and the platonic ideal
currently only intersect under the most artificial and simple conditions.
Most of the time the models we build of reality in the platonic ideal are
"close enough" .... Read Petroski's "To Engineer Is Human" for examples of
the what happens when its not.