From: "Nick Palmer" > one example > that has always bothered me, to whit the process of butterfly > metamorphosis. Inside the chrysalis, the body of the caterpillar breaks down > almost completely and reforms into something very different and, on the face > of it, more complex. I could never see that this process could evolve in > small steps that were evolutionarily advantageous at each stage.
I hope that someone will provide a good answer for that one... I certainly don't have it now, but will check my collection of Richard Dawkins material later-on.... in the mean time, it does bring to mind one very fascinating possibility.... Researchers have been pursuing almost every conceivable pathway and dead-end alley in what can be called the non-stop pursuit for human *life extension.* I suspect that if one totaled up the research commitment (often much of it hidden in other studies) it would run into the billions. Imagine this, Movie lovers... As, if nothing else, it would make a good Sci-Fi plot. The butterfly genome is probably easy to decode, compared with that of a mammal. There are probably only a few dozen genes responsible for metamorphosis - certainly less than 100. Imagine isolating the ones which are responsible for breaking down and reassembling 'only' the body, keeping the brain intact. You would need to dream up some gimmick for that part. We would first try the technology on favorite pets, of course. This is similar to what is happening with cloning - only now you get the exact same animal, no need to house-break the new/old "Spot" once again... this a vast improvement over just a similarly shaped copy that cloning gives. We know that there is a waiting list of several thousand folks who have already frozen the DNA of their pet in anticipation- even "Trigger" is waiting to be revived. It is too late for them to get the benefit of this new "cloning-plus". Yet they will fork over $20-50,000 for normal cloning, so we could ask $100k a pop for "metamophasizing"... yes... this could be big business. Of course the next part of the story/screenplay... and the set-up for whatever drama one wishes to add to the human part, is obvious... only please don't cast Jeff Goldblum as butterfly-boy. Twenty-some years later, I still cannot see him in another movie without thinking of the Fly.... yup he was just a Jurassic fly when I was cheering for the dinosaur to eat Laura Dern. OTOH, David Cronenberg should direct it... no doubt about that! Jones
