; > This example (and another presented by David McF, and all the others
; > where beings reproduce in some non-cross-over way) do not qualify
; > as "Elitism" as I presented it here. To qualify either 1] the same
; > individual must be kept alive generation after generation, or 2]
; > the individual must reproduce without the chance of a modification
; > that would be "less fit".
;
; 2] holds here, for all practical purposes. "Generation" is not
; realistically definable [no discussion of #1], and any instance of the
; plant is essentially one multinuclear cell. Barring major radiation
; [Chernobyl, etc.], 2 will hold almost surely [probability zero, but I could
; describe highly unnatural ways of doing it]
;
; "Reproduction" means "Oh dear, someone or something tore the plant in two."
; This plant only has one tissue type, essentially; it has a rather
; extreme lack of specialized tissue [for a macroscopic plant with
; full-blown analogs of stems and leaves]. In particular, it does NOT have
; any specialized reproductive tissue!
When reproduction occurs in these examples, the DNA replicates. Each time
the DNA is copied, there is chance for error, i.e. mutation.
-- David Leeper dleeper@gte.net Homo Deus http://home1.gte.net/dleeper/index.htm 1 + 1 != 2 http://home1.gte.net/dleeper/CMath.html