Mysterious ‘Jumping Gene’ That Appears 500k Times in Human DNA
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Re: Mysterious ‘Jumping Gene’ That Appears 500k Times in Human DNA
#2The parasite theory is that transposons are rather like early computer viruses that replicated by embedding themselves in other executables: they exist only to make copies of themselves in their host genome. This theory is not incompatible with these results. Evolution is not a rational design process. Once a transposon starts replicating it is quite possible for the host genome to evolve to incorporate the transposon in its regular mechanisms.
To continue the computer analogy, imagine that some mad programmer decided to practice software reuse by calling a routine embedded in a virus. Now when you clean the viral infection from your computer the mad programmer's app no longer works. But that doesn't mean that the virus isn't continuing to replicate and cause other harm.
Aside: this is yet another counter-example to the Intelligent Design "theory"; no sane engineer would have done it like that.
Re: Mysterious ‘Jumping Gene’ That Appears 500k Times in Human DNA
#3The parasite theory is that transposons are rather like early computer viruses that replicated by embedding themselves in other executables: they exist only to make copies of themselves in their host genome. This theory is not incompatible with these results. Evolution is not a rational design process. Once a transposon starts replicating it is quite possible for the host genome to evolve to incorporate the transposo…
Aren't most intelligent designs actually done by sane engineers filled with quirks like this? Spaghetti code at places, leaky abstractions, hard-coded things, replicating old bugs to make the program compatible with bad OSes or other old software, etc. etc. This could just as easily be an artifact of the complexity of reality, not an argument for- or against "intelligent design". There might be reasons do doubt intelligent design hypothesis, but this one does not seem like one of them.
(Also why would it need to be a "sane" engineer? It could have just as easily be a bad junior engineer, that does not produce "perfect" code - just code that works.)
Re: Mysterious ‘Jumping Gene’ That Appears 500k Times in Human DNA
#4The parasite theory is that transposons are rather like early computer viruses that replicated by embedding themselves in other executables: they exist only to make copies of themselves in their host genome. This theory is not incompatible with these results. Evolution is not a rational design process. Once a transposon starts replicating it is quite possible for the host genome to evolve to incorporate the transposo…
Aren't most intelligent designs actually done by sane engineers filled with quirks like this? Spaghetti code at places, leaky abstractions, hard-coded things, replicating old bugs to make the program compatible with bad OSes or other old software, etc. etc. This could just as easily be an artifact of the complexity of reality, not an argument for- or against "intelligent design". There might be reasons do doubt intel…
>It could have just as easily be a bad engineer from a third-world country, that does not produce "perfect" code - just code that works.
Because "first-world" country engineers don't do that?
Re: Mysterious ‘Jumping Gene’ That Appears 500k Times in Human DNA
#5The parasite theory is that transposons are rather like early computer viruses that replicated by embedding themselves in other executables: they exist only to make copies of themselves in their host genome. This theory is not incompatible with these results. Evolution is not a rational design process. Once a transposon starts replicating it is quite possible for the host genome to evolve to incorporate the transposo…
Couldn't it also be seen as a forking point of accepting (integrating) or rejecting the new element? With maintained or increased fitness the host organism survives. With rejection, the new element becomes by definition a pathogen. From an objective point of view, organisms that incorporate pathogens and survive become more aligned with the surrounding environment, adapted. Evolution is brutal, but is it irrational ?
Re: Mysterious ‘Jumping Gene’ That Appears 500k Times in Human DNA
#6A few years ago I read Nick Lane’s The vital
Question, which explored “junk DNA” extensively, in the context of abiogenesis.
The analogy I particularly liked was that they are little turing machines, and the very original stuff of life - indiscriminate, self-replicating, and therefore part of the bootstrap for everything that came after.
Also, more on LiNE. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retrotransposon#LINEs
Re: Mysterious ‘Jumping Gene’ That Appears 500k Times in Human DNA
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
Aren't most intelligent designs actually done by sane engineers filled with quirks like this? Spaghetti code at places, leaky abstractions, hard-coded things, replicating old bugs to make the program compatible with bad OSes or other old software, etc. etc. This could just as easily be an artifact of the complexity of reality, not an argument for- or against "intelligent design". There might be reasons do doubt intel…
> It could have just as easily be a bad engineer from a third-world country, that does not produce "perfect" code - just code that works. Because "first-world" country engineers don't do that?
I've seen this being statistically significant in hiring people from different parts of the world. There are exceptions everywhere, but there are also certain trends. But I get your point that this information is irrelevant to the question at hand.
Re: Mysterious ‘Jumping Gene’ That Appears 500k Times in Human DNA
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It could have just as easily be a bad engineer from a third-world country, that does not produce "perfect" code - just code that works. Because "first-world" country engineers don't do that?
I've seen this being statistically significant in hiring people from different parts of the world. There are exceptions everywhere, but there are also certain trends. But I get your point that this information is irrelevant to the question at hand.
JIAN YANG!!!
Re: Mysterious ‘Jumping Gene’ That Appears 500k Times in Human DNA
#9The parasite theory is that transposons are rather like early computer viruses that replicated by embedding themselves in other executables: they exist only to make copies of themselves in their host genome. This theory is not incompatible with these results. Evolution is not a rational design process. Once a transposon starts replicating it is quite possible for the host genome to evolve to incorporate the transposo…
> no sane engineer would have done it like that.
You should read the story of Mel [1].
Re: Mysterious ‘Jumping Gene’ That Appears 500k Times in Human DNA
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It could have just as easily be a bad engineer from a third-world country, that does not produce "perfect" code - just code that works. Because "first-world" country engineers don't do that?
I've seen this being statistically significant in hiring people from different parts of the world. There are exceptions everywhere, but there are also certain trends. But I get your point that this information is irrelevant to the question at hand.
"Incompetent engineers from other parts of the world" seems to be HN's version of Godwin's law