I Didn’t Have Eggs

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People making changes to recipes and then complaining it didn’t turn out.

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BurntWits@sh.itjust.works

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But I thought bananas were eggs :( (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 2 days ago by BurntWits@sh.itjust.works to c/ididnthaveeggs@sh.itjust.works

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[–] scholar@lemmy.world 1 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Now we're quibbling over details, I never said it was a fast method of genetic engineering. It's also not so much a matter of chance that the offspring has the desired traits, all that matters is that on average each generation is slightly better than the one before. That's why it takes so long.

[–] piccolo@sh.itjust.works 2 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (1 children)

Ok... think it about this way. Selective breeding is completely possible under natural circumstances, because we are purely manipulating natural evolutionary processes. The only reason domestication dont naturally occur is becuase generally the desirable traits are often lethal to wild organisms. We are the evolutionary pressure. If we die, so would the majority of our crops and livestock.

Genetic engineering completely bypasses that process, and can even introduce genes from other species that would be so improable to breed, you might as say its impossible. You'll never be able to breed glow in the dark corn because no parent you can breed with will have the genes, so you would be left with two natural choices... a random mutation, or a random horizontal gene transfer.

[–] scholar@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

Yes, selective breeding is basically humans inducing evolutionary pressure by allowing or disallowing certain individuals to breed.

Domestication can occur naturally (as we believe happened with cats), and more generally there's no reason organisms can't develop traits that humans like except that there would need to be an existing evolutionary pressure to promote it. It's not so much that the traits are harmful as there's just no need for them (apart from everything we've bred to be sterile or completely dependant on humans)

Given enough time evolution turned water-breathing fish into giraffes; there's no reason bioluminescence would be impossible to select for, it would just take an incredibly long time.