Does Darwinian Evolution claim that DNA mutations are random?

"If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down. But I can find out no such case."
[Charles Darwin, Wikiquote]

This post forms part of a series on Mr Marshall's Random Mutator. You can find all the posts here:

1. The Random Mutator of Perry Marshall.


2. Is DNA Analogous to Human Language?


3. How Random is Random Mutation in DNA?


4. Does Darwinian Evolution Claim that DNA Mutations are Random?

Evolution vs Genetics

Darwinian Evolution came about in 1859 with the publishing of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. The roots of genetics could be traced back to 1865 with the publishing of Gregor Mendel's Experiments on Plant Hybridisation. However, the importance of Mendel's work was not fully realised until the 20th century, with the modern evolutionary synthesis.

It is thus apparent that Charles Darwin made no claims about genetics. Charles Darwin tried to explain how species came about and how some traits become more widespread while others become extinct.


Mu, a Japanese word which roughly translates as 'no thing'. Kind of what Mr Marshall's Random Mutation Generator has to do with Darwinian Evolution, or evolution in general.

What is Darwinian Evolution?

As already noted, Darwinian Evolution and the modern theory of evolution are not the same thing at all. Darwinian Evolution claims the following:

1. "If all the individuals of a species reproduced successfully, the population of that species would increase uncontrollably.


2. Populations tend to remain about the same size from year to year.


3. Environmental resources are limited.


4. No two individuals in a given species are exactly alike.


5. Much of this variation in a population can be passed on to offspring."

[Introduction to Evolution, Wikipedia]

Since resources are limited, there is a struggle among individuals of a species for survival. Darwin precisely claims that it is not chance alone which determines survival, but that survival depends on the traits of an individual which enable that individual to survive. In other words, survival of the fittest.

The modern theory of evolution thus bases its principles of natural selection and speciation on Darwinian Evolution, but Darwinian Evolution entirely lacks some of the other modern mechanisms of evolution. This is because the mechanisms of gene flow and genetic drift in particular are based on genetics, with which Darwin was unfamiliar.

What does Darwinian Evolution claim about DNA mutations?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

What does Mr Marshall's Random Mutation Generator have to do with Darwinian Evolution?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

How Random is Random Mutation on DNA?

"If we want to postulate a deity capable of engineering all the organized complexity in the world, either instantaneously or by guiding evolution, that deity must have been vastly complex in the first place.

The creationist, whether a naive Bible-thumper or an educated bishop, simply postulates an already existing being of prodigious intelligence and complexity."
Richard Dawkins


This post forms part of a series on Mr Marshall's Random Mutator. You can find all the posts here:

1. The Random Mutator of Perry Marshall.


2. Is DNA Analogous to Human Language?


3. How Random is Random Mutation in DNA?


4. Does Darwinian Evolution Claim that DNA Mutations are Random?

What is mutation?

Simply put, a mutation is a change in the nucleotide sequence of the genetic material of an organism. This genetic mutation could cause changes in the phenotype of your species. For example, you could have a mommy and a daddy with blue eyes who give birth to a child with brown eyes.

What causes mutation?

"Mutations can be caused by copying errors in the genetic material during cell division, by exposure to ultraviolet or ionizing radiation, chemical mutagens, or viruses, or can be induced by the organism, itself, by cellular processes such as hypermutation."
[Mutation, Wikipedia]

Copying errors, you say? One would think that a system intelligently designed by an omniscient, omnipotent deity would not be prone to copying errors. It surely wouldn't be sensitive to ultraviolet radiation either, given that an omniscient deity would've seen that one coming.

Similarly, if mutations were not random, but predicted and designed by a perfect designer, one would expect that these errors would not be copied over to the next generations, but that some error-correcting mechanism would be in place. This would ensure that if you exercised your free will too leniently and you ended up next to a UV light for too long that your children and your children's children are at least protected from your inability to practice sound discrimination towards malignant types of light sources.

Do mutations in DNA occur randomly and indiscriminately?

This is exactly what Mr Marshall's random mutator suggests. However, in DNA, you don't have one string, like you do in Mr Marshall's random mutator. You have two strands. Both strands consist entirely of the letters A, C, G and T. An A on the one string mostly (but not necessarily) corresponds to a T on the other strand, and vice versa. A C on one strand mostly (but not necessarily) corresponds to a G on the other strand, and vice versa. More significantly, any possible combination of A, C, G and T is a proverbial word in the language of DNA.

This is important, because not all combinations of letters in Plain English are words. Mr Marshall would do well to model his random mutator so that it bewares of the Jabberwocky. At least this would resemble the working of one strand of DNA somewhat. Since any combination of letters in the DNA alphabet form meaningful words in the genetic code, there is no possibility that a random mutation would prevent your genetic information from being transferred. It follows that the randomness of mutation in DNA is immaterial, because no mutation would cause your organism to necessarily become extinct.


A Cro-magnon skull. Mr Marshall's random mutator reasons that natural selection implies that we can revert our current human population back to Cro-magnons, and if we can't evolve to our current level of humanity, humanity would necessarily become extinct.

Mutation does occur randomly, but not indiscriminately thanks to natural selection. A mutation in some of your DNA is not necessarily a mutation in all of your DNA, or in all of the DNA of a particular species, as only the mutations which get passed on to your offspring are relevant. Mr Marshall's mutator does not model this scenario at all, but his model implies that any random mutation in the DNA of a particular organism automatically occurs species wide.

Mr Marshall's random mutator does not model natural selection

Mr Marshall reasons that since you can mutate randomly and then revert back to your selected text, his mutator does model natural selection. I fail to see how taking modern day humans and reverting us back to archaic homo sapiens has anything to do with natural selection. Besides, his 'Revert To Selected Text' button does not in fact revert back to selected text. It entirely clears the text. As an information scientist, Mr Marshall should surely be aware of Nielsen's heuristics. Poor user interface design does nothing to bring your point across more clearly.

Natural selection is not a carefully designed, directed process. Nor is it capable of being completely ignored in a model of mutation. Sticking with Darwin's definition:

"One general law, leading to the advancement of all organic beings, namely, multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die".
[Wikiquote, Charles Darwin]

There is nothing in this mutator that models selecting the strongest letters, words or sentences, and letting the weakest letters, words or sentences die. Note that this mechanism does not imply a designer. This mechanism could be brought about by an outbreak of Aids in your population.

Surely, if your DNA were designed by a perfect, omniscient deity, she would've seen that one coming too? Why then are some people immune to Aids while others are not? Why then are some more immune to malaria, while others are not? Natural selection seems to explain that, without the need for a designer. Mr Marshall's random mutator does not.

By the way, I haven't mentioned Cthulhu in this post. I just thought I'd randomly mention that.

Is DNA analogous to human language?

"It all starts with random mutation, from which natural selection can choose winners. Since DNA is a language based on a four-letter alphabet (A, C, T, G); since letters form words (Codons) and words form instructions (Genes) we can test the concept in Plain English."
Mr Perry Marshall


This post forms part of a series on Mr Marshall's Random Mutator. You can find all the posts here:

1. The Random Mutator of Perry Marshall.


2. Is DNA Analogous to Human Language?


3. How Random is Random Mutation in DNA?


4. Does Darwinian Evolution Claim that DNA Mutations are Random?

The analogy that DNA is a language like Plain English is just a metaphor. It's a very convenient metaphor to explain the mechanisms of DNA, but as a metaphor, it should not be taken too literally. Operations on a string of text in English do not represent operations on DNA. Here is why:

DNA is a language based on a four letter alphabet (A, C, T, G)

This seems pretty valid and it does clarify the workings of DNA a little. However, letters in Plain English do not work like this:

"Each nucleotide sub-unit consists of a phosphate, deoxyribose sugar and one of the 4 nitrogenous nucleotide bases. The purine bases adenine (A) and guanine (G) are larger and consist of two aromatic rings. The pyrimidine bases cytosine (C) and thymine (T) are smaller and consist of only one aromatic ring.

In the double-helix configuration, two strands of DNA are joined to each other by hydrogen bonds in an arrangement known as base pairing. These bonds almost always form between an adenine base on one strand and a thymine on the other strand and between a cytosine base on one strand and a guanine base on the other."
[Transfer of information via the genetic code, Wikipedia]

The letters A, C, T and G represent nucleotides. While these letters are the basic building blocks of DNA, just like letters are the basic building blocks of words, nucleotides are further divisible into more basic building blocks.


A nucleotide is composed of a ring of nitrogen, carbon and oxygen atoms, a five carbon sugar (together referred to as a nucleoside) and one phosphate group.
[Nucleotide, Wikipedia]

While you could argue that letters are formed by ascenders, descenders, markers and serifs, these do not represent the basic building blocks of letters in the same way that a ring of nitrogen, carbon and oxygen atoms, a five carbon sugar and one phosphate group represent the basic building blocks of nucleotides.


The Gypsy Curse font from sinisterfonts.com. Does it look like nucleotides? Didn't think so.

Letters are not further divisible into functional parts in Plain English, but the nucleotides which make up DNA are further divisible into functional, stand-alone, chemical parts.

Furthermore, in any language there are rules which stipulate which letters can go next to which other letters. You'd mostly have a vowel next to a consonant, for instance.These rules are not determined by the message encoded in the text, but have to do with the conventions of the language.

This is different from DNA because DNA is not a language. DNA mostly forms as two strands: an adenine base on one strand and a thymine on the other strand and between a cytosine base on one strand and a guanine base on the other. This arrangement is not determined by convention, nor by the genetic code contained in the DNA, but the chemical properties of nucleotides and the resulting Hydrogen bonds.

Random mutations on a single string of Plain English text do not take the double helix structure of DNA into account.

This means the claim that we can test DNA concepts with Plain English is fundamentally flawed. The analogy that DNA is similar to Plain English is entirely inappropriate, as random operations on an entire string of text do not equate to any kind of operations on DNA at all.

The Random Mutator of Perry Marshall

"Oh no! He's a creationist proving his point with a spam generator."
http://ave-imperator.blogspot.com/


This post forms part of a series on Mr Marshall's Random Mutator. You can find all the posts here:

1. The Random Mutator of Perry Marshall.


2. Is DNA Analogous to Human Language?


3. How Random is Random Mutation in DNA?


4. Does Darwinian Evolution Claim that DNA Mutations are Random?

This random mutator is an attempt by Mr Marshall to debunk Darwinian Evolution. Note that Darwinian Evolution is merely the origin of our current Theory of Evolution. No biologist currently believes in Darwinian Evolution in its strict sense, as the Theory of Evolution itself has gone through the processes of adaptation, genetic drift, gene flow, mutation, natural selection and speciation.


A mutation. It might be pretty damn ugly, but it's not extinct.

It is thus clear from the outset that this random mutator is a straw man argument. Nevertheless, information scientist to information scientist, yet biological layman to biological layman, let's scrutinise this random mutator of Mr Marshall.

How Mr Marshall Imagines Random Mutation Works

• the genetic code of DNA is analogous to a high-level human language. Letters map to amino acids, words map to codons and sentences (or the meaning of sentences) map to instructions in the genetic code


• random mutations in the letters of words are similar to mutations in the genetic code of DNA


• random mutation occurs among the entire portion of code without keeping certain portions intact


• Darwinian Evolution claims that these mutations are completely random and are not subjected to any kind of selection process


• a selection process implies a designer of that process. Hello, Cthulhu!


• if you apply random mutation to a sentence and you don't get a new meaningful sentence immediately, your mutated organisms immediately go extinct

In the following posts, I shall take each of these points to task as patiently as I can while listening to Slayer. I've already dealt with Mr Marshall's spurious claims that DNA proves the existence of god. Hopefully, these posts would also lead to a healthy debate. All comments, hate mail and bottles of single malt whiskey are welcome, however I shall only take intellectually honest comments seriously.

Slayer gets the traffic of The Beast!

Read this post while listening to the theme from The Twilight Zone. In an uncanny turn of events, my review for Slayer's Divine Intervention managed to get The Traffic of the Beast!



Woohoo!

Interview with Lerue Delashay

Lerue Delashay is a Los Angeles based composer who specialises in ominous soundscapes. His multifaceted career kicked off with a stint as the keyboard player in the symphonic metal band Theatre of the Macabre.

Since then, he has written and performed the film scores of several films, including The Homecoming, Book of Lore and Dead Men Do Tell Tales. In addition to his film scores, he also released several excellent solo albums of brooding, introspective neo-classical and ambient compositions.

With the release of the latest Lerue Delashay album, The Cycle of Fifths, Lerue was kind enough to grant The Necro Files an interview.

NF: First things first. Your new album, "The Cycle of Fifths", was mastered by Hollywood engineer John Rodd. How would you describe your working experience with him?

Lerue: John is an extremely professional Engineer who was very proficient in his craft and had a wonderful ear for bringing out the richness and character of the music. His vast experience in Mixing and Recording Classical and Orchestral film music helped him to bring the most out in my compositions, and I was very fortunate that he was interested in working together.

NF: Would you name 5 of your favourite composers?

Lerue: Ludwig Van Beethoven, Richard Wagner, Peter Ilyach Tchaikovski, Igor Stravinski, Alfred Schnittke.

NF: Could you name some of your favourite compositions?

Lerue: Degas - The Sorcerer's Apprentice.
Verdi - Requiem Mass.
Wagner - The Flying Dutchman Overture, Ride of the Valkeries, Ring of the Nebilinglund cycle.
Tchaikovski - Marche Slav, Pathetique Symphony.
Holst - The Planets cycle.
Orff - Carmina Burana.
Stravinski - The firebird, Rite of Spring.
Schnittke - String Quartet series.

NF: You recorded a metal album (A Paradise of Flesh & Blood, with Theatre of the Macabre). Do you still enjoy metal?

Lerue: On occasion, though I tend towards the nostalgic music that I grew up with when listening to metal, and have not kept up on current music.

NF: Have you ever been ostracised due to your beliefs? Does it bother you either way?

Lerue: My beliefs are my own, I tend to not wear them as a badge and therefore do not become a martyr.

NF: Besides being an accomplished classical composer and an accomplished solo artist, you also worked with CD 1334. Please describe your working experience with the original Christian Death members?

Lerue: CD 1334 was an interesting experience, and it was wonderful to have the opportunity to play music that I had listened to as a young man. They had a great sense of dramatic imagery and the music still had an impressive sound, which brought to the stage made for many wonderful performances.

NF: Recently, you've composed some film scores. Is this something you particularly enjoy, or do you just do it to pay the bills?

Lerue: Certainly, I do enjoy creating music for film, and I have a deep passion for writing music which accompanies the drama and action that unfolds as the movie tells its story.

NF: How did you learn music theory? Did you have formal training or did you teach yourself?

Lerue: I have had no formal training, and a majority of my acquired knowledge has come from my personal studies of harmony, counterpoint and Orchestration. I have been approached by an accomplished Composer who studied for twelve years at the Rome Conservatory who wished to tutor me on advanced techniques though, and so my studies with him will commence shortly.

NF: Pirates or ninja?

Lerue: Books.

NF: What would Cthulhu do?

Lerue: Let me try and write my favourite Quote from Lovecraft.

"The most merciful thing in the world, I believe, Is the inability of the human mind to correlate its contents. We live on a placid isle of tranquillity amidst the black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each striving in their own direction, have hitherto harmed us little. But one day, they shall open up such terrifying vistas, and of our place therein, that we shall either go mad from the blinding light, or stumble forth into the dawn of a new dark age"

I memorized this quote for its elegant structure and divine meaning. Lovecraft was certainly more than a pulp writer, and his style to this day still draws me in.

I would like to express my gratitude to Lerue Delashay for taking time from his busy schedule to grant me this interview. Thanks very much!

External Links

• Lerue Delashay on myspace. Listen to some of his tunes here!


• The official Le'Rue Delashay website. Order all his albums from his website.

Doppelganger (1993) Review

Conclusion

This high budget lameness resembles a pretty cool metamorphosis scene with big latex heads, a few buckets of blood and lots of ooze with a half-baked plot added as an afterthought. The doppelganger idea is charming and could be seen as a metaphor for the main character's struggle to come to terms with her higher circuits of consciousness, scared to unleash a monster as it were. Or maybe not, but that's my version and I'm sticking to it.

Plot

A girl (Drew Barrymore) is stalked by her doppelganger in this obvious allusion to her shady drug habits and the resulting explorations of Dr Timothy Leary's 8-circuit model of consciousness. Well, not really. Most of the film is just plodding and dull so I added my own subtext.

Review

"To see the world in a grain of sand, and to see heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hands, and eternity in an hour." - William Blake

No, William Blake was not on acid. At least not the same acid that Dr Hoffman synthesised. His auguries of innocence do however seem to describe the same kind of phantoms summoned by Dr Timothy Leary with the auguries of lysergide.

Dr Leary did serious psychology work for a while. His interpersonal circumplex model is still used to evaluate and differentiate between personality disorders. After a colleague introduced Leary to psilocybin mushrooms, his area of expertise changed drastically. It is during this period of intense experimentation with psychedelics that Dr Leary developed his seven levels of consciousness model, which he dubbed 'the Seven Tongues of God' (Nevermore fans rejoice!). This model was later improved by Dr Leary and Robert Anton Wilson, after ingesting more drugs in greater quantities. It developed into the 8-circuit model of consciousness.



Dr Timothy Leary, doppelganger for delinquency.

Dr Leary's 8-Circuit Model of Consciousness

According to Dr Leary, the old left brain/right brain consciousness model is more than just the smart maths side versus the dumb arty side. The left side represents our primal modes, needed for our survival, while the right side represents our more divine levels of consciousness, needed for evolution. While it is crucial to awaken the levels of consciousness of the left side in order to survive, it is not necessary to develop the levels of consciousness of the right side of your brain, unless of course you want to have some fun.

The Seven Tongues of God

These refer to the seven basic spiritual questions.

• The Ultimate Power Question: What is the basic energy of the universe?


• The Life Question: What is life?


• The Human Being Question: Who is man?


• The Awareness Question: How does man know?


• The Ego Question: Who am I?


• The Emotional Question: What should I feel about it?


• The Ultimate Escape Question: How do I get out of here?

Robert Anton Wilson added an eighth tongue – What if there are others out there? This might have severe theological ramifications, because in order to accommodate 8 tongues it means we'd have to picture god as Medusa. Unless of course your god is Cthulhu, in which case there are more than enough allegorical tentacles to go around. But wait, there is more!



Medusa. Gorgon. God?

The 8-Circuit Model of Consciousness

Dr Leary assigned each level of consciousness to each of the basic spiritual questions. He further claimed that each level could be achieved with the appropriate contraband.

• The Bio-survival Circuit differentiates between danger and safety. Infants on this level crawl forwards or backwards. It is stimulated by drugs which offer pain relief (opiates like codeine or morphine).


• The Emotional Circuit is concerned with emotion. This mode of consciousness differentiates between submissive and dominant. Infants at this level become aware of up and down. Alcohol stimulates dominant and submissive thinking.


• The Symbolic Circuit deals with logic and abstract thought. It is concerned with dexterity and handling artefacts. At this level, infants become aware of left and right. Stimulants like caffeine and cocaine stimulate this mode of thinking.


• The Domestic Circuit offers tribal awareness. Leary never associated a drug with it, but others have suggested endorphins. This means chocolate!


• The Neurosomatic Circuit is where things get more interesting. The previous modes of consciousness are all affiliated with orientation within an Euclidean geometrical system. The neurosomatic circuit is concerned with orientation outside of fixed points, such as when one floats in water or when one free falls. Leary postulated that we need this kind of consciousness for when we walk in space someday. Marijuana is used to disorient your perceptions of Euclidean space-time.


• The Neuroelectric Circuit is when the mind becomes aware of its personal consciousness. Leary suggests that telepathy occurs at this level. Psilocybin and peyote are used to activate this circuit.


• The Neurogenetic Circuit allows the mind to become aware of the group mind of its species, or awareness of its collective consciousness. LSD is used to activate this circuit.


• The Psycho-atomic Circuit is when the mind becomes aware of super intelligence, or god. Cthulhu is in the ketamine.

What about Doppelganger?

Just like contraband serves as a shortcut to various circuits of consciousness, I will give you a shortcut to the worthy scenes in this film. When watching this movie, skip to the following highlights and cut approximately 50 minutes of dullness from your life:

• the opening, which has a sex scene and a murder back to back


• Drew Barrymore in the shower, with bloodshed on her boobies


• any scene with Leslie Hope, as her character is the only one worth watching. One of her scenes involves Americans pronouncing doppelganger. Hilarious!


• scenes featuring Drew Barrymore with both a pair of shades and a large knife. Note: both accessories, because when she has only one of them nothing happens


• the transformation scene. Don't worry, you'll know

Director

Avi Nesher

Cast

• Drew Barrymore


• Peter Dobson


• Leslie Hope


• George Maharis


• George Newbern

Rating

When skipping to the suggested cool scenes:

When watching the entire film:

Dagon (2001) Review

Conclusion
A noble effort by Miskatonic University graduates. It features buckets of blood and everybody's favourite Cephalopoda: Cthulhu! The Great Old One even gets a sacrifice or two.

This film is clearly low budget, but whether that is a weakness or a strength depends on your perception. I feel necessity breeds invention. And sometimes a race of Merpeople.

Plot
Barbara and Paul are enjoying a cruise when their ship suddenly becomes shipwrecked. That's what you get for letting an IT professional navigate without google earth. They seek help in a nearby Spanish harbour. At first, the inhabitants seem friendly, but the tide soon turns.

The inhabitants are a tad more than eccentric. In fact, they are just plain creepy:

• they have no electricity. No, this is not a South African port, but a fictional Spanish town called Imboca


• there is a strange symbol everywhere


• there are virtually no opposable thumbs in Imboca


• no really, I am not kidding. There are virtually no opposable thumbs in Imboca

It turns out that Barbara was kidnapped instead of being helped. To what end? Well, that's where Cthulhu comes in.

Inhabitants of Imboca faithfully answer to the call of Cthulhu. If you aren't chanting "Ia! Ia! Cthulhu ftaghn!" by now, you might not enjoy this movie.

Review

• Dagon is loosely based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft. In particular, the tales Dagon and The Shadow Over Innsmouth were used: Dagon for the name, and the latter for the plot. The infamous author is long since "dead but dreaming", which means you can find the complete works of H.P. Lovecraft for download, free.


• There is some CGI, but it is not intrusive. More importantly, it is not tacky. You won't find actors playing imaginary dodge ball in front of a blue screen. It must be one of the few recorded incidents of tastefully used CGI.


• There are several latex heads. Even latex hands. Expect even anatomically non-descript latex, but as far as I could tell there were no severed latex heads.


• Expect even some fine breast implants on display.


• A man features as the protagonist and a woman as an antagonist, or half a woman as an antagonist. Nevertheless, for the most part, Dagon abides by the 10 Commandments of Horror.


• Produced by Brian Yuzna, who also directed Faust: Love Of the Damned. He is one of my favourite producers, because if you see his name on a credit roll, it means buckets of blood. Dagon is no exception. Let's just say your skin will crawl.


• Dagon is Spanish actor Francisco Rabal's last film. The dynamic between him and Ezra Godden is great to watch, especially in the dialogue right before Rabal's character gets... no wait, that would be telling. Watch it!


• It could always do with more ooze.


• It could always do with more fine breast implants.

Dagon also teaches us morality. It suggests a perplexing philosophy, sometimes difficult to grasp, but for the layman it could be summarised in a few words:

What Would Cthulhu Do?

Director
Stuart Gordon

Cast
Ezra Godden
Macarena Gómez
Raquel Meroño
Jorge Luis Pérez
Francisco Rabal

Rating

NILE - Ithyphallic

Nile finally enjoys major label support after one Ozzy Osbourne (the artist formerly known as the Prince of Darkness, now just known as Sharon's hunchback slave) desanctified them for his Ozzfest. After miraculously surviving the outbreak of mall brats, a few line-up changes and Sharon's Banshee whining at the behest of ca$h registers in a fit of rage, Nile manages to deliver another sphinx-spanking album.

Expect supreme technical Death Metal, the masterly drumming of George Kollias, the exotic scales and even more exotic instruments of Herr Sanders and hymns unto Cthulhu. All the brilliant harmonies and amazing acoustics beside, what could possibly beat hymns unto Cthulhu?