Evolution by Elimination - The Game

[doubtingmerle]

You would think yes. Some folks though, have other personal motivations.

Perhaps now we will have an endless discussion about self-reproducing ham sandwiches.

Sounds like a bunch of baloney to me.

 

[AirPo]

The rules: You can pontificate as much as you please regarding each suggestion I post, but you must end with either "yes" or "no" regarding whether said suggestion is or is not evolution or your post doesn't count.

We'll begin with the absurd, and proceed from there ...

I have a population of ham, and I sample the alleles. I then spread some mayonnaise on the ham, thereby changing the allele frequency. Is this evolution?

You don't put mayo on ham, so no.

 

[Resha Caner]

No. This is absolutely not the case. There are many changes in biological systems that are not evolution ... The definitions may be confusing and appear general, but the bottom line is that evolution is a permanent and heritable change in the genetics of an organism that will be reflected in its morphology or behaviour.

I didn't mean to muddy the water by implying anything and everything would fit under the evolutionary umbrella. The comment was meant to be taken in the context of the current thread, so only heritable change. Still, the definition is quite broad. I'm not saying that's improper or unusual, but sometimes words do become so overburdened as to be useless. There are a few things in mechanics where I wish new terms would have been coined for relativity rather than migrating terms from classical mechanics.

But, unfortunately, we are where we are.

 

[Doctor.Sphinx]

-_- ham sandwiches are not alive. It wouldn't matter how much you add onto the ham or even mess with the DNA that remains in the ham cells, those cells are dead and cannot reproduce.

You are neglecting the effect of the Blind Sandwich Maker, who does not require any biological magic or romantic hanky panky to generate more ham sandwiches. No, just sheer economic factors and cost pressures are enough to continually generate ham sandwiches on a grand scale, without any need for superstitious witchery.

And with so many ham sandwiches being generated in such large quantities, it would be unthinkable for them not to mutate and evolve. Hence the power of science over religion, and economic forces and the limitations of cash over farming.

 

[drjean]

Obviously some people have never been so poor as to realize a ham sandwich can become alive over time if left to itself.

If not everything CAN fall under this mythical evolutionary umbrella, then NO.