4.b) Objectives of life and human evolution
Regardless of a purely philosophical position, Life's final aim is unknown; however, we can indeed analyze some of the instrumental objectives that logically exist or should exist in general.
Without trying to be exhaustive, the discussion will be about the essential objectives, which are being present in man's evolution and all vital impulse systems. Equally, the considerations relate to the Conditional Evolution of Life –CEL– support and the contradictions or limitations of other theories.
It is worth disclosing a conceptual interrelation between the discussed objectives and the arguments and examples used; nonetheless, the presentation separates them into the following.
Guarantee and certainty
Efficacy and optimization
Internal coherence or compatibility
4.b.1. Guarantee and certainty in the evolution of living beings
In the biological progression of man and, definitely, in all types of living beings and vital impulse systems, it will act the supremacy of the species or the individual's system.
This vital conditioning explains many living beings' strange behavior, justified by the necessity of guaranteeing and perpetuating the species. They can even come to killing themselves to serve as food for the offspring in its initial moments.
The genome of rice
Between 42,000 and 63,000 genes surpasses any animal described until now in the number of genes.
The main reason is the duplication of 70% of rice genes: many ancestral genes made copies of themselves and inserted the duplicate into another part of the genome.
Initially, those two copies of the same gene are a mere redundancy, but later they can gradually deviate, and one of them can acquire slightly different functions.
El País 25-04-2002.
In genetics, the total certainty of incorporating modifications to the genome is not always necessary. Sometimes it will be sufficient with a high degree of probability; however, if genetic variation affects one of the new being's complex and vital functions, it would be worthy to attain total certainty.
A solution would be to simulate system operation under the new parameters and relations before incorporating them in the genetic information to transmit, avoiding any variation that may cause an error.
However, the simulation method has a limitation; it is impossible to simulate all possibilities in very complex functions. It is crucial to have other ways allowing maximum assurance of the new being's viability. All guarantees seem small after all the accumulated work for the next advanced living creature.
An example would be the biological human evolution.
The guarantee is one of the fundamental novelties of the CEL because it represents an advantage of the sexual differentiation in reproduction, giving a compelling reason to its existence.
Section improvement of efficiency poses the problem of deciding which source to use to develop the offspring with two genetic information sources.
The need for guarantee offers a coherent explanation. The viability of the new being with genetic modifications will ensue if there is a backup copy of the genome in case of failure of the innovative changes.
"Scientists from the Center for Demographic and Population Genetics at the University of Texas (USA) have explained: "Men suffer more genetic mutations because they produce more sperm than women produce ova."
El País 12-05-1993. Nature
Therefore, a chief function of sexual differentiation could be one of the sexes providing an intact copy of its genetic packet; in many species, the female ova forms in the relatively initial moments of the individuals' development. On the contrary, it does not occur in males.
Once again, the most well-known clear example is human evolution.
Like developing a sophisticated computer program, there are always backup copies if the changes do not manage to obtain the anticipated result in similar processes much modest than those of man. Sexual differentiation in superior animals could be a little bit similar to those computer programs developed by multiple programmers and needing copies and compatibility.
The rate of masculine mutation is twice the female variation, which indicates that men are the cause of most hereditary diseases, which suggests they contribute more to the evolutionary progress in this sense.
El País 19-02-2001. Conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science WRONG - (WELL)
Some plants contradict the laws of Mendel. Genetically defective plants in both lines, they have, however, some healthy descendants, as though an unknown mechanism, based on a mysterious backup copy, had recuperated the correct sequence in its genes. Spectacular, marvelous, strange, unexpected are some of the descriptions for this discovery.
A scientist believes that the mechanism can also occur in people.
The experts think that there is a backup copy of RNA for all of the genomes.
El País 30-03-2005. Nature
There may be a full or almost complete backup copy of the genome mentioned in the previous paragraph. Nevertheless, it is not strictly necessary for the CEL proposals because nothing prevents a genetic modification from incorporating maintaining, at the same time, the previous code. However, it probably does not exist much flexibility in developing the new living being in broadly related functions.
The genes of animals are, on average, larger and more complicated than plants. Each gene can correct itself in various ways, and the evolution –in its most subtle aspects– seems to have played more with the alteration of those corrections –splicing– than with the duplication of whole genes.
El País 05-04-2002.
Undoubtedly, biology and genetics’ technical and scientific progress will have the last word on guarantee and certainty. Although, there could be two methods or more, keeping in mind the enormous casuistry present.