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I was kidnapped by mimes, they did unspeakable things to me.
Ok so I'm bored and tired...
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At least it wasn't memes. That would be unthinkable...
Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994. So does this signature. me, 2012
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I may have this wrong...
"Let us pursue the ineffable and see if we might not eff it after all." -- Dirk Gently (?)
At least I'm not the only one effing it up:
"Let us think the unthinkable, let us do the undoable, let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we might not eff it afterall."
"Let us do the undoable, let us think the unthinkable, let us ponder the ineffable and see if we might not eff it after all."
"... we humans grapple with the ineffable to see if we might not eff it after all. Of course, there is effing, and there is effing. I can't say I believe we honestly have the right to eff the ineffable, no matter how much we want to."
modified 25-Jan-21 21:58pm.
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¡spɹoM ǝɥʇ uɹɐǝ˥
-- By Order, The Patrician
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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Complex organisms tend to evolve over time into even more complex organisms; with even longer gestation periods.
Simple organisms, like viruses, tend to reproduce faster because they are "simpler". They also tend to devolve into even simpler (and deadlier) strains by lopping off parts during a mutation that encourages even faster reproduction.
As the virus is allowed to reproduce unchecked, the chance of a "bad" mutation increases.
In case you were wondering ...
It was only in wine that he laid down no limit for himself, but he did not allow himself to be confused by it.
― Confucian Analects: Rules of Confucius about his food
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I seriously can't tell if you're talking about COVID (and viruses in general) or humanity as we seem to go down in a downward spiral 
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Interested:[^]
Not interested:[^]
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So the f'wit deniers make it worse in so many ways?
Makes a lot of sense ... unlike them. 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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"Make it as simple as possible, but no simpler".
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I've met a few, seemingly complex organisms devolve into a more simple/stupid state and they seem to reproduce at an alarming rate.
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Did you ever think of Darwin then?
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Constantly, only problem is who to give the award to, there are so many that deserve it.
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My problem is that Darwinian natural selection is too ![Elephant | [mastadon]](https://codeproject.global.ssl.fastly.net/script/Forums/Images/elephant.gif) ing slow.
Software Zen: delete this;
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If I get your message right ... You think you should have been harvested long ago?
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Not quite. There are others who aren't being selected out of the gene pool fast enough.
(it's a vector quantity; you just had the sign wrong)
Software Zen: delete this;
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I said that earlier this year - but am too lazy to look for the link! 
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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Gary R. Wheeler wrote: Darwinian natural selection is too [mastadon] ing slow.
You're right - all those childless couples and singles who have chosen not to pass their genes on to future generations just hang around for decades using up precious resources... Darwinian losers like them should be cleared out as quickly as possible 
If you can't laugh at yourself - ask me and I will do it for you.
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Technically speaking, a virus is not an organism. It's just a piece of DNA wrapped in a cover that enables it to slip into your cells.
The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.
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Right. The "thing" then.
It was only in wine that he laid down no limit for himself, but he did not allow himself to be confused by it.
― Confucian Analects: Rules of Confucius about his food
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No. More like a rule.
You can play with it though and, if I'm reading this vast train of subthreads correctly, being able to play with it ... is misusing it.
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Gerry Schmitz wrote: Complex organisms tend to evolve over time into even more complex organisms; with even longer gestation periods.
Not really how it works.
True, complex organisms may have an upper hand it adapting to environmental changes before going extinct but they also, just as often, have many and more distinct dependencies - and can be blotted out by losing any one of them. Like crawling out of the oceans, mud, and slime created a dependency upon having water to drink (but also, the ability to find a new watering hole if the other dries up).
Evolution simply works by experimentation and lots of failures - and occasional success (variations of a species) and occasionally extreme success (domination by the new variant).
As an example of survival requiring less complexity: the majority of human residents of the far north, such as the scandenavian regions, evolved into a simpler form in their need to produce far less melanin to survive. It has two driving forces: one, to make it easier to use available light for vitamin D production and also that producing it was no longer essential for survival (viz-a-viz, as it is in equatorial regions). In other words - they can live without it so evolution may have favored simplification.
In the case of the new COVID mutations, of particular interest is that it is more easily spread. It (or they) will eventually become the dominant strains simply based upon statistics. What's left of the orignal strains will be marginalized - possibly even disappear. Becoming more deadly, however, is not a good mutation even from the virus' point of view. Ideally, the best carriers are those without symptoms. Killing the host is counter-productive. Currently, it has a chance to spread, first, so it continues on - but if a more rapidly lethal version emerged it may well be it's own cul-de-sac.
Two of my children studied genetics - and I won't claim to have absorbed much compared to a specialist, but it was clear that it's not nearly so simple as many like to make it seem. External to the organism are, in general, a large number of factors, also evolving, favoring and disfavoring mutations.
Blue eyes - a minor handicap, in fact (reduced color vision in bright light) survives as a recessive gene but survives in that way in huge populations. What about the rules?
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
modified 26-Jan-21 8:22am.
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The problem in explaining "complex scenarios" is that most can only handle the "simple" explanation.
As evidence, you missed the main point and focused on the lead-in.
Your "killing the host" argument doesn't apply, because the "host" is the individual cell that the virus destroys in the act of reproducing: it first merges, then turns the cell into a "factory", and destroys it in the process. It's not "thinking ahead".
"... the difference between a mild virus and a killer could be the replacement of only 3 atoms of 5,250,000 atoms in a particular species".
It was only in wine that he laid down no limit for himself, but he did not allow himself to be confused by it.
― Confucian Analects: Rules of Confucius about his food
modified 26-Jan-21 10:16am.
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Gerry Schmitz wrote:
As evidence, you missed the main point and focused on the lead-in.
Then you lead in was irrelevant? Or of minor importance? In that case you need to learn how to write for others (as per your own view of disbursing information). I'll give you a hint: you should not lead into a topic by using what (in your own critique of my response) is less than the main point you wish to promulgate.
And that being said, you variance was such as to not really deviate from the appropriate format (although you believe otherwise).
In fact, your concept of "Devolution" is just evolution - for devolution, with any reasonable sort of interpretation, would be tending towards throwbacks.
Simpler doesn't mean less evolved. Except, perhaps, as interpreted by simpler minds . . . ?
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Fogging.
It was only in wine that he laid down no limit for himself, but he did not allow himself to be confused by it.
― Confucian Analects: Rules of Confucius about his food
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