[1kGarand]

> perhaps only the DNA-based life survived some early period in Earth's history.

There is a theory that early life was RNA based. The mechanims are simpler, and it's easier to create "spontaneously appearing" RNA "life".

But as soon as this RNA life evolved and produced DNA based encoding system, the DNA based life evolved to wiped them out. Right now earth is full of RNAses, which are proteins that destroy RNA, made by DNA based life.

Evolution works in non-intuitive (mysterious) ways.

[lisper]

This is a very plausible theory. An analogous phenomenon happens in the world of memes, where some ideas produce "phenotypes" that wipe out other, competing ideas. c.f. Tienanmen Square in China or the Nag Hamadi scrolls.

[taylorfinley]

Can you elaborate on your examples?

[lisper]

Yes, but have you read "The Selfish Gene"? If not, you need to do that first.

[taylorfinley]

I have, I'm interested in memes as Dawkins defined them then. I've also read many translations of Nag Hamadi scrolls, so your example sparked my curiosity. Perhaps I need to re-read The Selfish Gene, it's been more than a decade now.

Edit: with reflection I think I understand what you were getting at, that the memes contained in the Nag Hamadi corpus had been successfully suppressed by their memetic cousins which for whatever reason came to be the dominant 'version' of that information, until an accident of history reintroduced the different versions that had been all but extincted in the memepool.

[lisper]

Exactly right.