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by SubiculumCode 3571 days ago
It may be that the information density of inheritance is much higher than assumed, both inheritable dna and epigenetic factors. I am no expert in genetics, but sometimes when I hear about rapid evolution during epochs of high stress, e.g. changes in climate, I wonder whether this rapid evolution is enabled by conservation of past genetic solutions that are currently dormant..—solutions that get switched on (i.e. expressed) in epochs of high stress/strong selection pressures..

It seems that if it is possible to preserve past evolutionary solutions which can get switched on and off, this would increase fitness of a lineage by enabling faster adaption. Instead of waiting for random mutation to do something meaningful and beneficial, allow/encourage mutations to occur in such a way that "uncomments" or "comments" out previously generated code fragments, so to speak.

again, i know little of this field,but i love to speculate.

1 comments

indeed my ignorance is such that my intuition could easily be known already or falsified already by the literature and would not know it.