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On the other hand, bio is the branch of science with a single accepted "theory of everything": evolution.
by lukas099 1y ago
On the other hand, bio is the branch of science with a single accepted "theory of everything": evolution.
- aspenmayer 1y agoEvolution is a theory of the origin of species via natural selection of heritable traits; evolution is not a theory of biogenesis, the origin of life itself.
- lukas099 1y agoYeah, I almost wrote ‘nearly have a theory of everything’ for that reason, but decided it wasn’t worth the extra words. We have a few plausible outlines of how life started, and IMO it doesn’t really matter all that much which one(s) actually happened. When we ourselves are doing biogenesis, there’s no requirement that it has to happen the way it happened before. It would be interesting to know, though, so if in your estimation we don’t have a theory of everything because of that, I’m okay with that.
- __MatrixMan__ 1y agoThat's a fine counterexample to "theory of everything", and fertile ground for spirited debate. But I think it's a distinction thats relevant to <1% of the work that biologists do, so like... does it matter?