{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/767",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 767,
    "subject": "Helly, Dollo!",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1998-06-12T12:46:19+00:00",
    "last": "1998-06-12T12:46:19+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0013-0028@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "William H. Ansley",
        "address": "wansley at warwick.net"
      },
      "date": "1998-06-12T12:46:19+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Helly, Dollo!",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Robert Borski wrote, on 6/4/98:"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Unfortunately, Roy now can no longer handle even the minimal manual skills\nhe needs to work his nets. This is a corollary of Dollo's Law; while he\nmight regenerate his missing parts, the function of those parts would *not*\nbe reacquired. And so he's forced to prostitute his wife to earn a living."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Robert Borski wrote, on 6/9/98:"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "The new Jeannine, like her brother in disguise, Victor Trenchard, is able\nto pull off the old switcheroo, and even to regenerate her lower\nextremities, but because of Dollo's Law is unable to produce functioning\nlegs. That's why they're withered. (Also why as well Roy Trenchard can't\nuse his hands post-train loss). And it's also why she can't get them fixed\nor a transplant. She's Annese, not human."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Dollo's Law applies to the evolution of organisms; to apply it to the\ndevelopment of an individual organism is to misapply it. I haven't read\n5HoC in a while, so I can't say if Wolfe misapplies it the same way or not.\n\nWolfe does have (or says he has) ideas about evolution that are not in the\nmain stream of scientific thought. It has been mentioned more than once on\nthis list that Wolfe has said that he believes that Lamarck's ideas are\ncorrect.\n\nMark Millman wrote a very nice message on 6/5/98 which explains Lamarck's\nideas (and why Wolfe may believe they are right) so well, I won't attempt\nto rephrase it here. And, although concise, it is long enough that I won't\nquote it here, except for this passage: \"... it's fairly clear that\nLamarckism confuses cause with effect. It would also require that changes\nin body parts could affect reproductive DNA, which does not happen.\" In\nother words, Lamarck was wrong.\n\nCraig Christensen asked about \"stories where Wolfe discusses or defends his\nbelief in Lamarkism.\" There is at least one: \"House of Ancestors\" in\n_Endangered Species_. In this story, Wolfe comes up with the remarkable\nnotion (defended by references to Lamarck) that by \"scanning\" a person's\nDNA, all of a person's ancestors, to the nth generation could be recreated,\ncomplete with their knowledge and personalities. This is nonsensical; even\nleaving out the knowledge and personalities, we only inherit half of each\nof our parent's genetic material, so even the complete genetic makeup of\neither parent could not be determined. Of course, you can postulate a\nmysterious nongenetic form of inheritance (which is what Wolfe does) but\nthere is no evidence for any such thing.\n\nEvolution occurring in an individual is one of a set of more or less\nscientifically (or logically) indefensible ideas that frequently crop up in\nscience fiction. Others are time travel, faster than light travel,\nantigravity, inertialess drives and force fields. Certainly we can accept\nthese ideas for the sake of the story, but there is little point in basing\narguments about the validity of events or ideas in a story on them.\n\nI think shape-shifting organisms are another such idea, but I'll save that\nfor another posting.\n\nWilliam Ansley"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}