Science and Natural History discussion

Hi all,

Just thought I'd suggest this book. It offers a hypothesis of an alternative evolutionary mechanism to natural selection.

Obviously evolution happens, and natural selection goes a long way to explain how/why, but I've always thought that certain evolutionary instances can't be fully explain by natural selection alone. When I came across this then, I found it pretty interesting. Just a hypothesis and needs some proper academic research to turn it into a bonafide theory, but found it an interesting idea nonetheless.

If you're sceptical I think his website explains the idea a little bit, and there's a few free kindle chapters available on Amazon too.

Let me know what you think!

Looks like intelligent design crap honestly.
For the record, the consensus among evolutionary biologists is not that natural selection explains everything, there are also non-selective mechanisms such as genetic drift, though their relative importance is a matter of debate

"BEEM argues that the complex signal networks that exist between the millions of protein molecules in a cell or the billions of cells that make up larger organisms are also capable of generating such intelligent solutions, albeit at a much slower pace. Thus, it is proposed that species can meaningfully assess their environment, design clever solutions and, most importantly, pass them on to the next generation; in effect, species design themselves to near perfection over hundreds or thousands of generations." - Source:Raju Pookottil, Author of BEEM | About the book

That will be an affirmative on Intelligent Design. Suggested designer is however not supernatural, though some of it (the BEEM hypothesis) methods appear somewhat suspect.

All in all; Why a book? Why not research? Why go for the general public before the scientific community?

I'd argue right off the bat about the 'species design themselves to near perfection' thing, anyway. I don't see much intuitive evidence of this. In a changing environment, how would species ever achieve such 'perfection'? How would they know what goal to shoot for? The thing about evolution by natural selection is, it's goal-less. It has no endpoint in mind. It occurs through current selective pressures.

"Thus, it is proposed that species can meaningfully assess their environment, design clever solutions and, most importantly, pass them on to the next generation; in effect, species design themselves to near perfection over hundreds or thousands of generations."

Well that sounds like nonsense to me. After all, species don't actually exist. They're just labels we use to classify the natural world. A species isn't a "thing" that can do anything, let alone assess or design.

Any mechanism for passing epigenegic information to progeny offered?