From: rokimoto557@gmail.com   
      
   On 2/22/2026 6:52 PM, MarkE wrote:   
   > On 23/02/2026 3:18 am, RonO wrote:   
   >> On 2/22/2026 12:32 AM, MarkE wrote:   
   >>> Evidence is emerging that Dawkins' "Mt Improbable" is not Mt Fuji but   
   >>> rather "rugged in all directions" [1]. Neat textbook depictions give   
   >>> way to the reality of a "lack of viable evolutionary pathways among   
   >>> the major optima."   
   >>>   
   >>> Beneficial mutations do not work together, rather, "individually   
   >>> beneficial mutations are often mutually incompatible, leading to   
   >>> ruggedness on the fitness landscape."   
   >>>   
   >>> This is at the molecular level with an empirically determined   
   >>> ribozyme fitness landscape. The paper's conclusion?   
   >>>   
   >>> "Nevertheless, in the absence of such mechanisms, the emergence of a   
   >>> globally optimal sequence is likely to result from chance events   
   >>> rather than natural selection."   
   >>>   
   >>> An appeal to chance of this magnitude is a deal-breaker: "We can   
   >>> accept a certain amount of luck in our explanations, but not too   
   >>> much." (The Blind Watchmaker, Richard Dawkins)   
   >>>   
   >>> A similar situation applies for proteins: "...an emerging picture of   
   >>> pervasive epistasis" within proteins [2].   
   >>>   
   >>> "Both types of interaction are rampant, but specific epistasis has   
   >>> stronger effects on the rate and outcomes of evolution, because it   
   >>> imposes stricter constraints and modulates evolutionary potential   
   >>> more dramatically; it therefore makes evolution more contingent on   
   >>> low- probability historical events..."   
   >>>   
   >>> Note the "*more contingent on low-probability historical events*".   
   >>>   
   >>> While selection acts on the phenotype as a whole, molecular evolution   
   >>> underlies the process.   
   >>>   
   >>> My prediction: this "emerging picture" will continue to build as   
   >>> evidence against a foundation of Darwinian evolution.   
   >>>   
   >>> _______   
   >>>   
   >>> [1] Mapping a Systematic Ribozyme Fitness Landscape Reveals a   
   >>> Frustrated Evolutionary Network for Self-Aminoacylating RNA   
   >>> https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.8b13298   
   >>>   
   >>> "...optimization of activity over the entire landscape would be   
   >>> frustrated by large valleys of low activity."   
   >>>   
   >>> "Our results show that the experimentally determined ribozyme   
   >>> activity landscape exhibits a degree of frustration, as individually   
   >>> beneficial mutations are often mutually incompatible, leading to   
   >>> ruggedness on the fitness landscape."   
   >>>   
   >>> "...the inability to traverse the landscape globally corresponds to   
   >>> an inability to restructure the ribozyme without losing activity."   
   >>>   
   >>> "The ruggedness of the empirically determined ribozyme fitness   
   >>> landscape reported here can be described by the Rough Mt. Fuji model,   
   >>> which is a combination of a smooth 'Mt. Fuji' landscape and the   
   >>> random House-of- Cards landscape...we suggest that the major [random]   
   >>> House- of-Cards character found implies a substantial level of   
   >>> frustration, consistent with the lack of viable evolutionary pathways   
   >>> among the major optima."   
   >>>   
   >>> "The frustrated nature of the evolutionary network suggests that   
   >>> chance emergence of a ribozyme motif would be more important than   
   >>> optimization by natural selection."   
   >>>   
   >>> "It should be noted that mechanisms that favor greater genetic   
   >>> diversity, such as recombination, gene duplication, or epistasis   
   >>> among genes, could enable crossing of fitness valleys."   
   >>>   
   >>> That is, a familiar mandatory positive spin, but followed by their   
   >>> real conclusion:   
   >>>   
   >>> "Nevertheless, in the absence of such mechanisms, the emergence of a   
   >>> globally optimal sequence is likely to result from chance events   
   >>> rather than natural selection."   
   >>>   
   >>> _______   
   >>>   
   >>> [2] Epistasis in protein evolution   
   >>> https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26833806/   
   >>>   
   >>   
   >> And Bumble Bees can't fly.   
   >>   
   >> Evolution by natural selection has been documented.  It happens and is   
   >> happening.  You have to stop denying reality.  You have to be a nut   
   >> job to deny that evolution by natural selection has happened and is   
   >> currently happening.   
   >>   
   >> The reason to believe put up their recreation model to account for the   
   >> evolution of the anoles lizards in the Caribbean on multiple islands.   
   >> They claim that the new types of lizards are recreations of some   
   >> original, and only look like they are related by descent with   
   >> modification.  On islands with some difference in altitude of their   
   >> coasts and highlands the lizards have evolved two different physical   
   >> types, that differed from the coasts and highlands, along with other   
   >> differences between islands.  What some researchers did was to cross   
   >> the two types and make hybrids, and they released the hybrids onto an   
   >> island that did not have anoles lizards.  The hybrids were   
   >> intermediate in phenotype, but after just a few generations the   
   >> highland phenotype was reconstituted and predominantly found in the   
   >> highlands and the coastal phenotype had been reconstituted and was   
      
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