“Evolution, we could say, has found a simpler solution yet: reproduction. You get new people with the genetic heritage of the species, but neotenous and adaptable to the current environment.”
It is ironic to me that death, as a part of the mechanism of natural selection, has brought about creatures who seek to invent methods to eliminate it.
Death, after reproduction, works as a part of a process to advance a given species’ levels of fitness.
It is ironic to me that death, as a part of the mechanism of natural selection, has brought about creatures who seek to invent methods to eliminate it.
The irony is that DNA and its associated machinery, as close as it is to a Turing Machine, did not become sentient and avoid the concept of individual death. The universe would make much more sense if we were DNA-based computers that cared about our genes because they were literally our own thoughts and memories and internal experience.
Or perhaps DNA did became sentient and decided to embark on a grand AGI project that resulted in Unfriendly multi-cellular life...
The last line in the article is my favorite:
It is ironic to me that death, as a part of the mechanism of natural selection, has brought about creatures who seek to invent methods to eliminate it.
Death, after reproduction, works as a part of a process to advance a given species’ levels of fitness.
Death doesn’t “work”, and species don’t “advance”. All that shit just kinda happens.
Welcome to Human Club. We like to talk as if things have goals and that parts of things have functions. It’s weird, I know.
The irony is that DNA and its associated machinery, as close as it is to a Turing Machine, did not become sentient and avoid the concept of individual death. The universe would make much more sense if we were DNA-based computers that cared about our genes because they were literally our own thoughts and memories and internal experience.
Or perhaps DNA did became sentient and decided to embark on a grand AGI project that resulted in Unfriendly multi-cellular life...